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 Russia and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 marimba 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 Stereo Dub to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Surgeon. All the underground hits.
All John Foxx tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sly & The Family Stone 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 synthesizer and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
Mission of Burma,
Bang On A Can,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Intrusion,
Grauzone,
Kurtis Blow,
DNA,
Pylon,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Gap Band,
Tubeway Army,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Toasters,
KRS-One,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Minutemen,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Buckinghams,
X-102,
The Selecter,
The Slits,
Fatback Band,
Amon Düül II,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Gun Club,
Minor Threat,
Rhythm & Sound,
Pierre Henry,
Sun Ra,
the Soft Cell,
the Association,
Sight & Sound,
Echospace,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Crash Course in Science,
Ohio Players,
Johnny Clarke,
Hot Snakes,
Lower 48,
The Motions,
Althea and Donna,
The Smiths,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Crime,
Popol Vuh,
Dark Day,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Basic Channel,
This Heat,
The Monochrome Set,
Dennis Brown,
Junior Murvin,
Cheater Slicks,
The Grass Roots,
Monolake,
John Holt,
Yaz,
James White and The Blacks,
Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker.
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.