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 Belarus and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Lou Reed 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 Roxette to the funk 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 Pet Shop Boys. All the underground hits.
All Piero Umiliani tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Birthday Party record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harpers Bizarre 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?
The Evens,
Neu!,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Panda Bear,
Symarip,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Altered Images,
Television,
Bootsy Collins,
Quadrant,
La Düsseldorf,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Eli Mardock,
Vladislav Delay,
Ice-T,
UT,
The Blues Magoos,
Jacob Miller,
Pharoah Sanders,
Black Pus,
Byron Stingily,
Thee Headcoats,
Bronski Beat,
The Selecter,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Skriet,
Barrington Levy,
David Axelrod,
Sarah Menescal,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Depeche Mode,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Smoke,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Gun Club,
Throbbing Gristle,
Liliput,
Surgeon,
Mars,
Suburban Knight,
The New Christs,
Connie Case,
Nik Kershaw,
Amon Düül,
Fat Boys,
China Crisis,
Porter Ricks,
Q and Not U,
Mantronix,
Quantec,
Slave,
Jesper Dahlback,
Ludus,
Michelle Simonal,
Brick,
Subhumans,
Hoover,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Electric Prunes,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry.
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.