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 Bolivia and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 clarinet 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 Michelle Simonal to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Bronski Beat. All the underground hits.
All the Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every 48th St. Collective record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stockholm Monsters,
Ultravox,
Peter and Kerry,
Whodini,
Tom Boy,
Jacques Brel,
The Electric Prunes,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Tim Buckley,
The Cure,
Funkadelic,
Mars,
Dead Boys,
Tears for Fears,
Bronski Beat,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Sun Ra,
Shoche,
Ice-T,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Slave,
Marshall Jefferson,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Pere Ubu,
PIL,
Monolake,
Blossom Toes,
Rekid,
Stiv Bators,
Rites of Spring,
Delta 5,
Jeff Mills,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
L. Decosne,
Johnny Clarke,
Con Funk Shun,
Black Moon,
Thee Headcoats,
Heaven 17,
The Divine Comedy,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Adolescents,
John Lydon,
Interpol,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Trojans,
The Durutti Column,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Judy Mowatt,
The Last Poets,
Archie Shepp,
Radiohead,
Desert Stars,
Gang Green,
Symarip,
Sam Rivers,
Schoolly D,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.