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 Bosnia Herzegovina 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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Thompson Twins to the techno 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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All The Alarm Clocks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rufus Thomas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 mellotron and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronnie Foster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Delta 5,
Groovy Waters,
Anakelly,
Skarface,
E-Dancer,
Bobby Sherman,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Unrelated Segments,
the Swans,
Flamin' Groovies,
Gregory Isaacs,
Das Ding,
Ultimate Spinach,
Smog,
Terry Callier,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Motions,
The Smoke,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Black Pus,
Josef K,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Camouflage,
The Moody Blues,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Sam Rivers,
Sugar Minott,
Carl Craig,
Avey Tare,
The Wake,
John Foxx,
Yusef Lateef,
the Normal,
ABC,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Swans,
Blake Baxter,
Joe Smooth,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang Starr,
James White and The Blacks,
Cymande,
The Music Machine,
Glenn Branca,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Warren Ellis,
Surgeon,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Simply Red,
Archie Shepp,
Monolake,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sight & Sound,
Whodini,
Talk Talk,
The Grass Roots,
Joensuu 1685,
The Names,
Amon Düül II,
Gang Gang Dance,
Black Sheep,
Index,
Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun.
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.