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 Austria and from Mexico City.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 A Certain Ratio to the rap 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 Eric B and Rakim. All the underground hits.
All The Mummies tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Silicon Teens record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marine Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eurythmics,
Ten City,
Masters at Work,
The Red Krayola,
Deadbeat,
Agent Orange,
The Moleskins,
Anthony Braxton,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Sonny Sharrock,
Aloha Tigers,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Gap Band,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Heaven 17,
Stiv Bators,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Associates,
The Skatalites,
kango's stein massive,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Television,
Moss Icon,
Yellowson,
Hardrive,
The Selecter,
Nico,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Depeche Mode,
Banda Bassotti,
John Coltrane,
The Toasters,
The Velvet Underground,
Dead Boys,
Khruangbin,
Scratch Acid,
MDC,
In Retrospect,
Crash Course in Science,
The Saints,
Jimmy McGriff,
Radiohead,
The Invisible,
Little Man,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Suburban Knight,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Don Cherry,
Underground Resistance,
Todd Rundgren,
Kas Product,
Marshall Jefferson,
Dawn Penn,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Johnny Clarke,
Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic.
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.