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 Germany and from Taipei.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 synthesizer 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 Sound Behaviour to the rap 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 The Monochrome Set. All the underground hits.
All Sixth Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alphaville record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Livin' Joy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aswad,
Kas Product,
Minnie Riperton,
OOIOO,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Depeche Mode,
Lakeside,
Porter Ricks,
Robert Wyatt,
Bootsy Collins,
The Techniques,
Theoretical Girls,
Outsiders,
Guru Guru,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Quando Quango,
Intrusion,
Robert Görl,
Patti Smith,
Glenn Branca,
Ornette Coleman,
The Pretty Things,
Lee Hazlewood,
Silicon Teens,
Ronan,
Sexual Harrassment,
Rapeman,
Brand Nubian,
the Sonics,
Shuggie Otis,
The New Christs,
Crooked Eye,
Skarface,
Dual Sessions,
Khruangbin,
Laurel Aitken,
Tears for Fears,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Mummies,
Arcadia,
Fluxion,
Buzzcocks,
Morten Harket,
LL Cool J,
Bob Dylan,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Drexciya,
Audionom,
Mandrill,
Animal Collective,
Max Romeo,
Anakelly,
Bush Tetras,
the Bar-Kays,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Procol Harum,
Ken Boothe,
Kayak,
Yellowson,
The Last Poets,
FM Einheit, FM Einheit, FM Einheit, FM Einheit.
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.