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 Suriname and from Toronto.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Kerrie Biddell. All the underground hits.
All OOIOO tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chris Corsano record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flamin' Groovies record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator 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 Smoke,
Tim Buckley,
Lou Christie,
the Bar-Kays,
Stereo Dub,
Freddie Wadling,
Inner City,
Maleditus Sound,
Nirvana,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Victims,
Lungfish,
Brand Nubian,
Excepter,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Terry Callier,
the Slits,
The Modern Lovers,
The Music Machine,
Lee Hazlewood,
Country Teasers,
Rosa Yemen,
Matthew Bourne,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Trumans Water,
Black Bananas,
Letta Mbulu,
Sight & Sound,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
the Human League,
New Age Steppers,
Warren Ellis,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Ponytail,
The Shadows of Knight,
Moebius,
The Skatalites,
Arab on Radar,
Agitation Free,
Wings,
Iggy Pop,
AZ,
Youth Brigade,
Quadrant,
The Sonics,
The Velvet Underground,
Camouflage,
Shuggie Otis,
Sam Rivers,
Audionom,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Chrome,
Icehouse,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Depeche Mode,
New York Dolls,
Albert Ayler,
K-Klass,
Danielle Patucci,
Howard Jones,
The Birthday Party,
Idris Muhammad,
Babytalk,
Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson.
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.