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 Vanuatu and from New York.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the organ 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 The Music Machine to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Gil Scott Heron. All the underground hits.
All Kevin Saunderson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eurythmics 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roxette record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
DNA,
Thompson Twins,
Alison Limerick,
KRS-One,
The Litter,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Eurythmics,
Ronnie Foster,
Darondo,
Robert Wyatt,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Ultravox,
The Wake,
Q and Not U,
The Walker Brothers,
Symarip,
Public Enemy,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Banda Bassotti,
The Golliwogs,
Amon Düül,
Monks,
Organ,
Severed Heads,
Scratch Acid,
Jawbox,
China Crisis,
Pussy Galore,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Suicide,
The Techniques,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Brand Nubian,
Jeff Lynne,
Masters at Work,
Toni Rubio,
Jeff Mills,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Shuggie Otis,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Throbbing Gristle,
OOIOO,
Scion,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bizarre Inc.,
Hasil Adkins,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Mojo Men,
Dennis Brown,
Ten City,
Derrick Morgan,
Bobby Byrd,
Bobby Sherman,
Sparks,
Hot Snakes,
Moebius,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.