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 China and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 10cc to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All The Martian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tomorrow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nick Fraelich,
Monks,
The Motions,
Suicide,
Scratch Acid,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Young Rascals,
Mandrill,
Q and Not U,
Hardrive,
Kaleidoscope,
Cheater Slicks,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Aloha Tigers,
The Dave Clark Five,
John Holt,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Smoke,
Cybotron,
Andrew Hill,
Television Personalities,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Junior Murvin,
In Retrospect,
Lucky Dragons,
Circle Jerks,
This Heat,
Marvin Gaye,
Anthony Braxton,
Fear,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Althea and Donna,
Donny Hathaway,
Livin' Joy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Curtis Mayfield,
Danielle Patucci,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Hot Snakes,
Black Pus,
Absolute Body Control,
Monolake,
Guru Guru,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Buckinghams,
John Cale,
Jeru the Damaja,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Warren Ellis,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Joey Negro,
Ultra Naté,
T. Rex,
the Soft Cell,
Tommy Roe,
the Association,
Lou Reed,
Camouflage,
Royal Trux,
The Detroit Cobras,
Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments.
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.