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 Latvia and from Spokane.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Rotary Connection to the grime 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 Oneida. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barbara Tucker record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mojo Men,
Ponytail,
Johnny Osbourne,
Massinfluence,
Boredoms,
Robert Wyatt,
The Moody Blues,
Big Daddy Kane,
Scientists,
Eddi Front,
Newcleus,
Cybotron,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Yazoo,
Drexciya,
Intrusion,
Urselle,
Bauhaus,
Kurtis Blow,
Patti Smith,
Ludus,
Index,
Gang of Four,
Warren Ellis,
The Wake,
The Standells,
The Index,
Zero Boys,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Gastr Del Sol,
Janne Schatter,
Pylon,
Quadrant,
Aswad,
Hardrive,
Von Mondo,
Joey Negro,
Eve St. Jones,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
OOIOO,
Fear,
Man Eating Sloth,
Desert Stars,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Sound Behaviour,
The Mighty Diamonds,
CMW,
Saccharine Trust,
Slave,
Young Marble Giants,
The Modern Lovers,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Amon Düül II,
kango's stein massive,
Stockholm Monsters,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Wasted Youth,
The Beau Brummels,
Faraquet,
The Motions,
Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin.
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.