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 Namibia and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Q65 to the techno 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 Robert Hood. All the underground hits.
All Fluxion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Wake 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Byron Stingily record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Drexciya,
Minnie Riperton,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Tim Buckley,
Von Mondo,
The Angels of Light,
K-Klass,
Altered Images,
The Last Poets,
The Moleskins,
Sun City Girls,
Eric Copeland,
Jimmy McGriff,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Scratch Acid,
Colin Newman,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sugar Minott,
Absolute Body Control,
Ludus,
The Selecter,
Q and Not U,
Monolake,
Amon Düül,
a-ha,
Pulsallama,
Moss Icon,
Sonic Youth,
The Standells,
8 Eyed Spy,
Hardrive,
Cameo,
Motorama,
Japan,
Camouflage,
Davy DMX,
The Offenders,
Laurel Aitken,
Harry Pussy,
X-102,
The Vogues,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Scan 7,
Audionom,
The Monochrome Set,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Arthur Verocai,
Unrelated Segments,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Ponytail,
Scrapy,
Roxy Music,
The Blues Magoos,
Andrew Hill,
Interpol,
Althea and Donna,
Accadde A,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Charles Mingus,
Little Man,
Youth Brigade,
The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics.
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.