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 Hungary and from Glasgow.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Nation of Ulysses to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The New Christs. All the underground hits.
All Ituana tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Names record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Moss Icon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Echospace,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Chris & Cosey,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Thompson Twins,
the Fania All-Stars,
Shoche,
Visage,
Blake Baxter,
Severed Heads,
Chrome,
Sällskapet,
JFA,
The Motions,
Metal Thangz,
Monolake,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Angry Samoans,
Japan,
Public Enemy,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Q65,
The Searchers,
Heaven 17,
Black Moon,
The Dave Clark Five,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Alphaville,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Gories,
Sexual Harrassment,
Essential Logic,
the Human League,
ABBA,
Jawbox,
The Raincoats,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Liliput,
Camberwell Now,
Lyres,
The Gun Club,
Organ,
Boogie Down Productions,
Bluetip,
Beasts of Bourbon,
F. McDonald,
Charles Mingus,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Warren Ellis,
Eden Ahbez,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Q and Not U,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
X-101,
The Saints,
The Happenings,
The Stooges,
Donald Byrd,
Lalo Schifrin,
Talk Talk,
8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy.
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.