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 Zimbabwe and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Camberwell Now 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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every World's Most record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Icehouse record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Television Personalities,
Anakelly,
Grandmaster Flash,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Hot Snakes,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Delta 5,
K-Klass,
Curtis Mayfield,
Blake Baxter,
Ultimate Spinach,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Motorama,
Tears for Fears,
Fat Boys,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Blancmange,
Inner City,
The Associates,
Shoche,
The United States of America,
Model 500,
Sonic Youth,
Mo-Dettes,
John Holt,
Arab on Radar,
Nation of Ulysses,
LL Cool J,
Underground Resistance,
The Residents,
Soft Cell,
FM Einheit,
Albert Ayler,
The Happenings,
Gil Scott Heron,
Scion,
Cymande,
Alphaville,
Essential Logic,
Ornette Coleman,
The Litter,
Cameo,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Darondo,
Iggy Pop,
Camouflage,
New Age Steppers,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Faust,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Last Poets,
Bobby Womack,
Sound Behaviour,
Tomorrow,
Robert Wyatt,
Barry Ungar,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Nick Fraelich,
The Standells,
Gang of Four,
The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers.
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.