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 Bhutan and from Seoul.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Kenny Larkin to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Sun Ra Arkestra. All the underground hits.
All ABC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pagans 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pretty Things record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Technova,
Zero Boys,
CMW,
Section 25,
New Order,
Peter & Gordon,
Jimmy McGriff,
Stockholm Monsters,
Tommy Roe,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Moby Grape,
Soft Cell,
The Cramps,
Boredoms,
Anakelly,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Y Pants,
The Wake,
Kerri Chandler,
Roy Ayers,
Lightning Bolt,
The Mojo Men,
Bill Near,
the Fania All-Stars,
Pulsallama,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Swell Maps,
The Martian,
Sonic Youth,
Cecil Taylor,
Radio Birdman,
Harry Pussy,
Shuggie Otis,
The Durutti Column,
Alton Ellis,
Alphaville,
Lucky Dragons,
Bill Wells,
Matthew Bourne,
Byron Stingily,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Amon Düül,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Parry Music,
U.S. Maple,
New York Dolls,
The Victims,
The Cure,
The Kinks,
Eli Mardock,
Bobby Sherman,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Moss Icon,
Prince Buster,
Massinfluence,
James White and The Blacks,
Don Cherry,
Subhumans,
Essential Logic,
La Düsseldorf,
Alice Coltrane,
Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike.
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.