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 Mongolia and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 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 Neil Young to the techno 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 Eurythmics. All the underground hits.
All Tres Demented tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kurtis Blow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The J.B.'s record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sight & Sound,
the Slits,
Procol Harum,
Lower 48,
Goldenarms,
Barbara Tucker,
Traffic Nightmare,
Bill Near,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Ohio Players,
Eurythmics,
Cameo,
Sparks,
Sex Pistols,
Animal Collective,
The Doors,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Monochrome Set,
In Retrospect,
Pagans,
The Residents,
The Monks,
Mission of Burma,
Japan,
The Golliwogs,
The Music Machine,
Glenn Branca,
Warsaw,
The Dirtbombs,
Con Funk Shun,
Scion,
Smog,
This Heat,
Pharoah Sanders,
Tomorrow,
Brothers Johnson,
Ultravox,
Junior Murvin,
Whodini,
Shoche,
Cal Tjader,
Outsiders,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Smoke,
Ultra Naté,
Radio Birdman,
Nils Olav,
New York Dolls,
Organ,
Eddi Front,
The Fugs,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Alphaville,
Popol Vuh,
Essential Logic,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Wings,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Red Krayola,
PIL, PIL, PIL, PIL.
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.