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 Macedonia and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 synthesizer 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 The Grass Roots to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Roy Ayers. All the underground hits.
All Curtis Mayfield tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every June Days record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
La Düsseldorf,
X-Ray Spex,
World's Most,
The Barracudas,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Shadows of Knight,
Bush Tetras,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Kas Product,
Tomorrow,
Ituana,
Duran Duran,
Chris Corsano,
Barry Ungar,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Golliwogs,
Dawn Penn,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Oblivians,
Marcia Griffiths,
Althea and Donna,
Metal Thangz,
Ohio Players,
Johnny Clarke,
Drexciya,
Q and Not U,
Bauhaus,
Laurel Aitken,
Arab on Radar,
The Misunderstood,
Bronski Beat,
Carl Craig,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Thee Headcoats,
the Association,
Warsaw,
Yellowson,
Model 500,
Avey Tare,
Scrapy,
Stereo Dub,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Victims,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Neil Young,
Dennis Brown,
Cal Tjader,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Flesh Eaters,
Surgeon,
Public Enemy,
Ten City,
Traffic Nightmare,
Sexual Harrassment,
Don Cherry,
Rakim,
The Motions,
Sight & Sound,
Lyres,
David Axelrod,
Tres Demented, Tres Demented, Tres Demented, Tres Demented.
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.