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 Angola and from Philadelphia.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Black Flag to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Ronan. All the underground hits.
All Lower 48 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a X-101 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cramps,
The Smiths,
Idris Muhammad,
The Toasters,
Mo-Dettes,
Subhumans,
Simply Red,
The Mummies,
The Martian,
Groovy Waters,
The Beau Brummels,
Spandau Ballet,
New Order,
8 Eyed Spy,
Drexciya,
Fugazi,
The Doors,
Joe Smooth,
Procol Harum,
Girls At Our Best!,
Bronski Beat,
The Move,
Robert Görl,
Fear,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Glambeats Corp.,
Q and Not U,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Gap Band,
Crispian St. Peters,
Bob Dylan,
Duran Duran,
The Angels of Light,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Youth Brigade,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Prince Buster,
Second Layer,
Franke,
Pole,
Radio Birdman,
The Walker Brothers,
Marvin Gaye,
Lebanon Hanover,
Pagans,
Oneida,
The Young Rascals,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Tubeway Army,
Magazine,
Reuben Wilson,
The Last Poets,
E-Dancer,
Slave,
The Five Americans,
Lindisfarne,
Robert Wyatt,
The Leaves,
Tim Buckley,
The Saints, The Saints, The Saints, The Saints.
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.