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 Bhutan and from Manila.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Stockholm.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Chris & Cosey to the punk 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 Black Dice. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wolf Eyes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Urselle,
Unwound,
Pantaleimon,
The Slackers,
Wings,
Siglo XX,
John Cale,
Camberwell Now,
kango's stein massive,
Soft Machine,
Brothers Johnson,
Crash Course in Science,
Terrestrial Tones,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Alphaville,
Alison Limerick,
Bronski Beat,
Visage,
Grandmaster Flash,
Charles Mingus,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Boredoms,
Black Pus,
Gregory Isaacs,
Second Layer,
Harpers Bizarre,
Funkadelic,
The Remains,
Sex Pistols,
Technova,
David Axelrod,
OOIOO,
Warsaw,
Joe Smooth,
Ituana,
Pagans,
The Invisible,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Wake,
48th St. Collective,
Peter & Gordon,
The Music Machine,
Monolake,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Pere Ubu,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Stooges,
Delta 5,
Barclay James Harvest,
Main Source,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Gabor Szabo,
The Golliwogs,
Cal Tjader,
Minny Pops,
Toni Rubio,
The Fugs,
Brick,
Wolf Eyes,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.