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 Tuvalu and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Alice Coltrane to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Todd Terry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lizzy Mercier Descloux record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Surgeon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Funkadelic,
The Dave Clark Five,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Selecter,
Matthew Halsall,
Josef K,
Kayak,
Moebius,
Soft Machine,
Junior Murvin,
LL Cool J,
the Association,
John Foxx,
The Cowsills,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Raincoats,
The Seeds,
Patti Smith,
Godley & Creme,
PIL,
Motorama,
Chrome,
Agitation Free,
Donald Byrd,
New York Dolls,
Stetsasonic,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gang Starr,
Al Stewart,
Accadde A,
The Black Dice,
Eden Ahbez,
Sun City Girls,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Jeff Lynne,
Unrelated Segments,
The Dirtbombs,
Faraquet,
CMW,
ABBA,
Fugazi,
Wally Richardson,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Piero Umiliani,
Thee Headcoats,
Eli Mardock,
Quadrant,
Jeff Mills,
Henry Cow,
The Slits,
Tom Boy,
Terry Callier,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Names,
Magma,
Echospace,
Buzzcocks,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Symarip,
The Monks,
Reuben Wilson,
Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu.
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.