Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Zimbabwe and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Magma to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Lizzy Mercier Descloux tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scrapy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Motions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Schoolly D,
Severed Heads,
ABC,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Kinks,
Duran Duran,
Kayak,
China Crisis,
Zapp,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Boz Scaggs,
Arcadia,
Althea and Donna,
Von Mondo,
Khruangbin,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Names,
The Toasters,
Matthew Halsall,
Adolescents,
Terrestrial Tones,
Boredoms,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Gun Club,
Dave Gahan,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Chris Corsano,
Gil Scott Heron,
Half Japanese,
Max Romeo,
Barbara Tucker,
Joensuu 1685,
Matthew Bourne,
Amazonics,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Whodini,
The Skatalites,
The Human League,
Roxette,
The Smiths,
Girls At Our Best!,
Outsiders,
Frankie Knuckles,
Nation of Ulysses,
H. Thieme,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Big Daddy Kane,
ABBA,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
10cc,
Aural Exciters,
Ken Boothe,
Toni Rubio,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Black Dice,
Bootsy Collins,
Wire,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Sex Pistols,
The Remains,
Pharoah Sanders,
Black Sheep,
Eddi Front,
Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.