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 Syria 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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Grandmaster Flash to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Stiv Bators. All the underground hits.
All Ossler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Subhumans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes 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?
Brick,
Public Image Ltd.,
Subhumans,
The Gun Club,
Bill Wells,
Ohio Players,
The Barracudas,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Johnny Osbourne,
Theoretical Girls,
Patti Smith,
ABC,
Eric Copeland,
Glambeats Corp.,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Max Romeo,
The Evens,
Mr. Review,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Jerry's Kids,
Vainqueur,
Brothers Johnson,
Warren Ellis,
Sound Behaviour,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Kayak,
Connie Case,
Blossom Toes,
New Order,
Johnny Clarke,
Y Pants,
Shoche,
Piero Umiliani,
Soul II Soul,
Pagans,
Scientists,
Tres Demented,
Sparks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Con Funk Shun,
Bush Tetras,
Fear,
Al Stewart,
The Vogues,
Franke,
Sugar Minott,
Aaron Thompson,
A Certain Ratio,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Trojans,
The J.B.'s,
Juan Atkins,
DNA,
The Blackbyrds,
PIL,
The Fugs,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Absolute Body Control,
Alice Coltrane,
Model 500,
Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté.
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.