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 Bulgaria and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez 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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Unrelated Segments to the techno 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 Franke. All the underground hits.
All Heaven 17 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Susan Cadogan 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Evens record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Fugs,
The Mojo Men,
The Slits,
Scion,
a-ha,
Marcia Griffiths,
F. McDonald,
The Beau Brummels,
Funkadelic,
Stiv Bators,
Nils Olav,
Lakeside,
Flash Fearless,
Sonny Sharrock,
Blake Baxter,
Scrapy,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Bobby Sherman,
Piero Umiliani,
Popol Vuh,
Wally Richardson,
The Fortunes,
Eve St. Jones,
Matthew Bourne,
The Motions,
Brass Construction,
Underground Resistance,
The Seeds,
the Germs,
Intrusion,
Sound Behaviour,
Kerri Chandler,
The Birthday Party,
Dennis Brown,
The Evens,
The Smiths,
Todd Rundgren,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jeru the Damaja,
Funky Four + One,
Young Marble Giants,
Au Pairs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The New Christs,
Mad Mike,
Charles Mingus,
Cheater Slicks,
The Cure,
Michelle Simonal,
Mandrill,
The Shadows of Knight,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Alton Ellis,
Jandek,
Faraquet,
The Buckinghams,
The Selecter,
Unrelated Segments,
Althea and Donna, Althea and Donna, Althea and Donna, Althea and Donna.
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.