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 Libya and from Edmonton.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Vainqueur to the grime 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 Kool Moe Dee. All the underground hits.
All Sex Pistols tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angry Samoans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Angels of Light & Akron/Family record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jesper Dahlback,
The Golliwogs,
Marcia Griffiths,
Arab on Radar,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Fugazi,
Funky Four + One,
The Real Kids,
Dennis Brown,
Janne Schatter,
Roxette,
Swell Maps,
Rhythm & Sound,
Gil Scott Heron,
Donald Byrd,
Reuben Wilson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
E-Dancer,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Nik Kershaw,
Erasure,
The Names,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Tommy Roe,
the Soft Cell,
The Flesh Eaters,
Al Stewart,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Monks,
The Walker Brothers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
MC5,
The Standells,
Lebanon Hanover,
Big Daddy Kane,
Roger Hodgson,
Graham Central Station,
Smog,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Fat Boys,
Gang Green,
Arthur Verocai,
The Gun Club,
The Residents,
Scott Walker,
In Retrospect,
Bauhaus,
Henry Cow,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The American Breed,
Prince Buster,
Michelle Simonal,
Essential Logic,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Bang On A Can,
Warsaw,
Jacques Brel,
Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop.
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.