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 Burkina and from Delhi.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 snare 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 Hasil Adkins to the rap 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 Minnie Riperton. All the underground hits.
All Massinfluence tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Au Pairs 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nils Olav record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Von Mondo,
Flipper,
Jacob Miller,
Fela Kuti,
Eli Mardock,
Matthew Halsall,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Cowsills,
The Zeros,
Delon & Dalcan,
Camberwell Now,
Tropical Tobacco,
Joey Negro,
The Human League,
The Velvet Underground,
Ossler,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Flamin' Groovies,
the Normal,
T. Rex,
KRS-One,
The Monks,
Dave Gahan,
Radiohead,
Al Stewart,
The Detroit Cobras,
Brand Nubian,
Audionom,
Amon Düül II,
Animal Collective,
Ponytail,
Lou Reed,
Supertramp,
Wally Richardson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Minor Threat,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Scott Walker,
The Modern Lovers,
Vladislav Delay,
The Doors,
Gichy Dan,
Warsaw,
Mission of Burma,
David McCallum,
Minnie Riperton,
L. Decosne,
PIL,
Pantaleimon,
The Real Kids,
The Neon Judgement,
Marine Girls,
Gil Scott Heron,
Slick Rick,
Index,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The New Christs,
Ronnie Foster,
Pierre Henry,
Arab on Radar,
ABBA,
Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe.
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.