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 Azerbaijan and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 Milan and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 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 Electric Light Orchestra to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All E-Dancer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warsaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stetsasonic,
John Cale,
The Martian,
Motorama,
Grandmaster Flash,
Masters at Work,
The Invisible,
Japan,
Charles Mingus,
Eric B and Rakim,
Tommy Roe,
Mars,
D'Angelo,
Nils Olav,
Goldenarms,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Monochrome Set,
Glenn Branca,
Tropical Tobacco,
Boz Scaggs,
Zero Boys,
Bronski Beat,
Yaz,
Dave Gahan,
the Bar-Kays,
Eden Ahbez,
Nation of Ulysses,
Monks,
Pantytec,
L. Decosne,
Derrick May,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Deepchord,
Roxette,
The Fire Engines,
Hasil Adkins,
La Düsseldorf,
Robert Görl,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Jeff Lynne,
Don Cherry,
Bobby Sherman,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Aloha Tigers,
The Moleskins,
Tom Boy,
Moby Grape,
Pulsallama,
Scrapy,
Silicon Teens,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Cybotron,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Dorothy Ashby,
Vladislav Delay,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lalann,
ABC,
The Standells,
Ultimate Spinach,
Rotary Connection,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.