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 Brunei and from Sao Paulo.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mo-Dettes to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Talk Talk. All the underground hits.
All Suburban Knight tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Archie Shepp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joensuu 1685 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Absolute Body Control,
Fatback Band,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Gap Band,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Faust,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Man Eating Sloth,
Barclay James Harvest,
Essential Logic,
Qualms,
In Retrospect,
The Invisible,
Dark Day,
Infiniti,
Depeche Mode,
Jacques Brel,
Kerrie Biddell,
Lower 48,
John Cale,
Gang Starr,
Patti Smith,
Angry Samoans,
Mr. Review,
Rhythm & Sound,
Ornette Coleman,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Make Up,
Cal Tjader,
Agent Orange,
Tubeway Army,
Anakelly,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Model 500,
The Stooges,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Albert Ayler,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Electric Prunes,
World's Most,
Brick,
Radio Birdman,
Warren Ellis,
U.S. Maple,
Lungfish,
Roger Hodgson,
The Red Krayola,
Marc Almond,
Bluetip,
Alton Ellis,
Mad Mike,
Iggy Pop,
Swans,
Leonard Cohen,
Lakeside,
Aural Exciters,
Lebanon Hanover,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Archie Shepp,
The Vogues,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Groovy Waters,
Electric Prunes, Electric Prunes, Electric Prunes, Electric Prunes.
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.