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 San Marino and from Bremen.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 X-102 to the disco 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 The Five Americans. All the underground hits.
All Fad Gadget tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Wasted Youth,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Stiv Bators,
Pagans,
Stereo Dub,
Crash Course in Science,
Janne Schatter,
One Last Wish,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
New York Dolls,
the Germs,
Sun City Girls,
Michelle Simonal,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Tom Boy,
Donald Byrd,
Iggy Pop,
Drive Like Jehu,
Ultravox,
Goldenarms,
Subhumans,
The Gap Band,
Au Pairs,
Magazine,
Gil Scott Heron,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Country Teasers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
EPMD,
Roy Ayers,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Ralphi Rosario,
Main Source,
Radio Birdman,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Mars,
Fluxion,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
David Bowie,
Kerri Chandler,
Yellowson,
Lebanon Hanover,
Desert Stars,
Heaven 17,
Flamin' Groovies,
Young Marble Giants,
The Pretty Things,
Buzzcocks,
Mandrill,
Moebius,
Altered Images,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Saccharine Trust,
Pierre Henry,
Essential Logic,
Outsiders,
Bill Wells,
Barrington Levy,
Wings,
China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis.
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.