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 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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Excepter 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 Electric Light Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All Niagra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Porter Ricks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rapeman,
Boogie Down Productions,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Maurizio,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Funky Four + One,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tropical Tobacco,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ultravox,
Inner City,
Alphaville,
Shoche,
The Birthday Party,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
UT,
Howard Jones,
JFA,
Marmalade,
The J.B.'s,
Bronski Beat,
The Toasters,
The Mojo Men,
Oneida,
Maleditus Sound,
Schoolly D,
Scott Walker,
Funkadelic,
Erykah Badu,
The Fire Engines,
Soul Sonic Force,
Mo-Dettes,
Lou Christie,
Barrington Levy,
Ohio Players,
Warsaw,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Massinfluence,
Niagra,
Arthur Verocai,
Suicide,
The Beau Brummels,
Deadbeat,
Y Pants,
The Skatalites,
Au Pairs,
Big Daddy Kane,
K-Klass,
Oblivians,
China Crisis,
Matthew Halsall,
Laurel Aitken,
Adolescents,
Sound Behaviour,
Lindisfarne,
Dual Sessions,
Moebius,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Motorama,
The Wake,
Theoretical Girls,
Second Layer,
Faraquet,
Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth.
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.