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 Swaziland and from Edmonton.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 theremin 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 Royal Trux to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Qualms. All the underground hits.
All Silicon Teens tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alice Coltrane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a mellotron and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spoonie Gee record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Ultra Naté,
Eve St. Jones,
The Sonics,
Sällskapet,
Aloha Tigers,
The Names,
The Wake,
Infiniti,
Skarface,
Tears for Fears,
The Associates,
Youth Brigade,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Mr. Review,
Lungfish,
Fugazi,
Max Romeo,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Judy Mowatt,
Gregory Isaacs,
Excepter,
Pantytec,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Eric Dolphy,
Zero Boys,
Icehouse,
Whodini,
H. Thieme,
The Monks,
The Sisters of Mercy,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Johnny Osbourne,
Mandrill,
Grey Daturas,
The Human League,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Leonard Cohen,
the Slits,
Agent Orange,
Agitation Free,
The Litter,
Ituana,
Ronan,
Fluxion,
Easy Going,
Sparks,
Little Man,
Pagans,
Popol Vuh,
Ten City,
Boz Scaggs,
The Dave Clark Five,
Nation of Ulysses,
Drexciya,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Pretty Things,
The Young Rascals,
The Black Dice,
Rotary Connection,
Main Source,
Traffic Nightmare,
10cc, 10cc, 10cc, 10cc.
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.