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 Zambia and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Trumans Water to the techno 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 The Tremeloes. All the underground hits.
All Faraquet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Amazonics record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Age Steppers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Negative Approach,
Lungfish,
Symarip,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Pretty Things,
Patti Smith,
Rapeman,
Dawn Penn,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Golliwogs,
Joey Negro,
Gastr Del Sol,
Minor Threat,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Gladiators,
Theoretical Girls,
The Saints,
Yazoo,
Sexual Harrassment,
New Age Steppers,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Scott Walker,
Stiv Bators,
Archie Shepp,
Wally Richardson,
The Beau Brummels,
H. Thieme,
Marvin Gaye,
Mars,
Throbbing Gristle,
Aural Exciters,
Cal Tjader,
MC5,
The Gap Band,
the Germs,
Heaven 17,
Amon Düül II,
Intrusion,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
It's A Beautiful Day,
Kurtis Blow,
Michelle Simonal,
David Bowie,
The Last Poets,
Nas,
Ornette Coleman,
Fluxion,
Aaron Thompson,
The Victims,
The Grass Roots,
B.T. Express,
Sugar Minott,
The New Christs,
Dave Gahan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Popol Vuh,
Echospace,
The Fugs,
The Litter,
Alphaville,
Fela Kuti,
Suburban Knight,
Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic.
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.