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 Sierra Leone and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 DeepChord presents Echospace to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Black Dice record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radio Birdman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marine Girls,
Infiniti,
Mo-Dettes,
Los Fastidios,
The Shadows of Knight,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Alison Limerick,
In Retrospect,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Delta 5,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Slackers,
Boz Scaggs,
The Vogues,
Fad Gadget,
ABBA,
T. Rex,
Saccharine Trust,
Marshall Jefferson,
Thompson Twins,
Interpol,
Skaos,
Basic Channel,
Iggy Pop,
Boogie Down Productions,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Duran Duran,
Chris & Cosey,
Sound Behaviour,
X-102,
James White and The Blacks,
Erykah Badu,
Mantronix,
The Moody Blues,
Bobby Hutcherson,
8 Eyed Spy,
FM Einheit,
Cybotron,
Jerry's Kids,
Bill Near,
Black Sheep,
Pere Ubu,
La Düsseldorf,
Suicide,
Nico,
Moby Grape,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Sonics,
Lou Reed,
Tom Boy,
Amon Düül,
The Cramps,
10cc,
Wings,
Popol Vuh,
Kas Product,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Crooked Eye,
Camouflage,
Swell Maps,
Neu!, Neu!, Neu!, Neu!.
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.