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 Saudi Arabia and from Tehran.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pantaleimon to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Yusef Lateef. All the underground hits.
All Radiopuhelimet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Blues Magoos record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rapeman,
The Count Five,
Bizarre Inc.,
Isaac Hayes,
Angry Samoans,
Crash Course in Science,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
David Bowie,
A Certain Ratio,
Aural Exciters,
Loose Ends,
Unrelated Segments,
Drexciya,
The Vogues,
the Swans,
Cluster,
Agent Orange,
Minnie Riperton,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sällskapet,
The Dave Clark Five,
Nation of Ulysses,
Eden Ahbez,
Marmalade,
EPMD,
H. Thieme,
The Flesh Eaters,
Steve Hackett,
Urselle,
Don Cherry,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sun Ra,
Cal Tjader,
Pussy Galore,
The Cramps,
Gang of Four,
David Axelrod,
Andrew Hill,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Fugs,
Ultra Naté,
Bob Dylan,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Suicide,
Erasure,
The Knickerbockers,
Simply Red,
Joey Negro,
Girls At Our Best!,
Black Moon,
Joy Division,
The Blues Magoos,
Drive Like Jehu,
DJ Sneak,
Camouflage,
Eddi Front,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cheater Slicks,
Icehouse,
Swans,
Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster.
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.