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 Syria and from Columbus.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Vainqueur to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Saccharine Trust. All the underground hits.
All The Happenings tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Juan Atkins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joey Negro record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Leaves,
Gang Green,
10cc,
Al Stewart,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Hoover,
The Zeros,
Make Up,
Black Moon,
Rapeman,
Todd Terry,
John Coltrane,
Hot Snakes,
The Durutti Column,
A Certain Ratio,
Suicide,
The Misunderstood,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Big Daddy Kane,
Public Enemy,
Kool Moe Dee,
Ohio Players,
Whodini,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
La Düsseldorf,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Roxy Music,
Wally Richardson,
Zapp,
Rod Modell,
Ludus,
Bang On A Can,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Fugazi,
The Cramps,
Pantytec,
FM Einheit,
Lou Reed,
Anthony Braxton,
the Soft Cell,
June of 44,
New Age Steppers,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Moby Grape,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Bobby Womack,
Ice-T,
Section 25,
The Black Dice,
Peter & Gordon,
Girls At Our Best!,
Scan 7,
Alton Ellis,
The Smoke,
Danielle Patucci,
The Fire Engines,
Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron.
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.