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 New Zealand and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Electric Prunes to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Au Pairs. All the underground hits.
All Surgeon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Parrish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Walker Brothers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
The Gap Band,
Technova,
Scott Walker,
Freddie Wadling,
Agitation Free,
The Five Americans,
Ornette Coleman,
Electric Prunes,
The Motions,
Black Moon,
The Durutti Column,
In Retrospect,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Audionom,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Isaac Hayes,
48th St. Collective,
Eric B and Rakim,
Alison Limerick,
LL Cool J,
The Residents,
the Normal,
Make Up,
Nils Olav,
Lindisfarne,
Blancmange,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Ultravox,
Cymande,
Erasure,
CMW,
Cluster,
Bill Near,
Lou Reed,
Arcadia,
Moss Icon,
Eden Ahbez,
Hashim,
Charles Mingus,
Pussy Galore,
Gichy Dan,
The Golliwogs,
The Saints,
the Slits,
Index,
One Last Wish,
Section 25,
Niagra,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Raincoats,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
the Association,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Bill Wells,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Kerri Chandler,
Rotary Connection,
DNA,
Au Pairs,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.