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 Papua New Guinea and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Make Up to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All The Young Rascals tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brick 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Liliput,
Funky Four + One,
The Shadows of Knight,
Crooked Eye,
The Gun Club,
Motorama,
JFA,
Black Bananas,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
the Germs,
Gastr Del Sol,
Rosa Yemen,
Yazoo,
Procol Harum,
Amazonics,
Negative Approach,
Porter Ricks,
The Sonics,
Roger Hodgson,
Lucky Dragons,
Sonic Youth,
Rotary Connection,
Wasted Youth,
The Music Machine,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sarah Menescal,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Grandmaster Flash,
Index,
Kaleidoscope,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Gap Band,
Khruangbin,
The Barracudas,
Duran Duran,
David Bowie,
ABC,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Isaac Hayes,
a-ha,
Faust,
Excepter,
Television Personalities,
Erasure,
The Fall,
Visage,
Bill Near,
Traffic Nightmare,
Unwound,
Graham Central Station,
Lalo Schifrin,
Slick Rick,
Tres Demented,
Darondo,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Black Dice,
The Dirtbombs,
Yaz,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon.
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.