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 Ireland and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 808 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 Scan 7 to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All the Sonics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radiopuhelimet record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 linndrum and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The American Breed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Absolute Body Control,
Scott Walker,
Sugar Minott,
Bronski Beat,
Carl Craig,
Moss Icon,
Magma,
Nirvana,
Derrick Morgan,
Young Marble Giants,
The Count Five,
Ludus,
Mad Mike,
Gerry Rafferty,
Fluxion,
Swell Maps,
Soulsonic Force,
Livin' Joy,
Subhumans,
Ponytail,
The Human League,
X-102,
Camouflage,
Kaleidoscope,
Section 25,
Jandek,
Angry Samoans,
Blake Baxter,
Tres Demented,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Marine Girls,
Flash Fearless,
Cameo,
Sonic Youth,
Marshall Jefferson,
Electric Prunes,
Eve St. Jones,
Liliput,
Todd Rundgren,
Terry Callier,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Mars,
The Red Krayola,
Brand Nubian,
Urselle,
Pagans,
Average White Band,
The Flesh Eaters,
Nico,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sexual Harrassment,
Charles Mingus,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Real Kids,
Wolf Eyes,
Unwound,
Crispian St. Peters,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Moebius,
Bobby Womack,
China Crisis,
Soul II Soul,
Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay.
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.