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 Maldives and from Paris.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Basic Channel to the techno 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 Godley & Creme. All the underground hits.
All Unwound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Inner City record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultramagnetic MC's record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Vogues,
Monolake,
Swans,
The Toasters,
The Electric Prunes,
Stetsasonic,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Anthony Braxton,
Ten City,
The Real Kids,
Fat Boys,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Minutemen,
Rites of Spring,
Kayak,
The Blackbyrds,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Angry Samoans,
The Cowsills,
The Walker Brothers,
Eli Mardock,
Excepter,
Pharoah Sanders,
David McCallum,
The American Breed,
Skaos,
Bill Near,
Albert Ayler,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Quando Quango,
Soulsonic Force,
B.T. Express,
Mary Jane Girls,
Schoolly D,
DJ Style,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Can,
Grauzone,
Wings,
Blossom Toes,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Lakeside,
Terry Callier,
Glambeats Corp.,
Joe Finger,
Letta Mbulu,
Roxette,
Harpers Bizarre,
Scratch Acid,
Minor Threat,
Clear Light,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Livin' Joy,
ABC,
June Days,
Eric Dolphy,
The Fall,
Kurtis Blow,
Chris & Cosey,
Eddi Front,
Sarah Menescal,
Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends.
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.