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 Sudan and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 guitar 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 Oblivians to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Fluxion. All the underground hits.
All The Star Department tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Smog 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Essential Logic,
Junior Murvin,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Motions,
The Divine Comedy,
Royal Trux,
Donny Hathaway,
Kas Product,
Ornette Coleman,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Alison Limerick,
Black Sheep,
Thompson Twins,
10cc,
Rosa Yemen,
Liliput,
Crash Course in Science,
Au Pairs,
KRS-One,
Tim Buckley,
Chris Corsano,
the Normal,
The Searchers,
Fugazi,
Crime,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Derrick May,
Sonny Sharrock,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sarah Menescal,
The Five Americans,
Kenny Larkin,
Symarip,
Niagra,
Crispy Ambulance,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Cameo,
John Holt,
New York Dolls,
Flash Fearless,
Technova,
Jacques Brel,
Siglo XX,
Neu!,
Franke,
Marcia Griffiths,
F. McDonald,
The Move,
Scientists,
The Black Dice,
Althea and Donna,
Gong,
Brick,
Dawn Penn,
The Walker Brothers,
Urselle,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Invisible,
Scion,
T.S.O.L.,
Television,
The Gun Club,
Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive.
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.