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 Mauritius and from Lille.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 oboe 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 Tubeway Army to the rock kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Eli Mardock. All the underground hits.
All Warsaw tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rapeman,
David McCallum,
Junior Murvin,
Schoolly D,
Susan Cadogan,
Dead Boys,
Frankie Knuckles,
Boogie Down Productions,
Kas Product,
Pierre Henry,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Residents,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Evens,
Y Pants,
the Human League,
Dark Day,
Amon Düül II,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Quando Quango,
Henry Cow,
Eric Dolphy,
Negative Approach,
Minor Threat,
Soul II Soul,
D'Angelo,
Mary Jane Girls,
David Axelrod,
Black Flag,
The Velvet Underground,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Five Americans,
Model 500,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Andrew Hill,
Ken Boothe,
Tim Buckley,
Average White Band,
New Order,
Nirvana,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Wire,
Shuggie Otis,
LL Cool J,
The Victims,
Amazonics,
Pet Shop Boys,
Nils Olav,
Ohio Players,
Rosa Yemen,
Vladislav Delay,
Banda Bassotti,
The Tremeloes,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Al Stewart,
Funkadelic,
Nick Fraelich,
Gregory Isaacs,
Heaven 17,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Altered Images,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.