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 Congo and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the organ 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 Banda Bassotti to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lebanon Hanover. All the underground hits.
All Lightning Bolt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vaughan Mason & Crew record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 theremin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Axelrod,
Minny Pops,
Chris & Cosey,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Barbara Tucker,
Max Romeo,
K-Klass,
The Gladiators,
Yaz,
The Last Poets,
Matthew Bourne,
Negative Approach,
Ohio Players,
The Leaves,
Man Eating Sloth,
Cymande,
Lebanon Hanover,
Joy Division,
John Coltrane,
Todd Rundgren,
Cluster,
Agitation Free,
Eve St. Jones,
Kerri Chandler,
Magma,
Juan Atkins,
The Dirtbombs,
Mo-Dettes,
Japan,
The Walker Brothers,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
David McCallum,
Mandrill,
Joensuu 1685,
a-ha,
Ice-T,
E-Dancer,
The Velvet Underground,
New York Dolls,
Lyres,
Frankie Knuckles,
Black Flag,
Josef K,
Suburban Knight,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Names,
Thompson Twins,
Dorothy Ashby,
Alice Coltrane,
John Cale,
Ken Boothe,
Marcia Griffiths,
Inner City,
Fluxion,
Flash Fearless,
The Blackbyrds,
Silicon Teens,
Boredoms,
Swell Maps,
Babytalk,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bang On A Can, Bang On A Can, Bang On A Can, Bang On A Can.
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.