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 El Salvador and from Houston.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Ultra Naté 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 Roy Ayers Ubiquity. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Drexciya record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 synthesizer and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Delta 5 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Magma,
Arcadia,
Negative Approach,
Das Ding,
Cymande,
Kool Moe Dee,
Zero Boys,
Eddi Front,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Outsiders,
Danielle Patucci,
The Selecter,
Country Teasers,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Khruangbin,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Cameo,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Ralphi Rosario,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Crispian St. Peters,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sandy B,
Joe Finger,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Donald Byrd,
Dual Sessions,
Blake Baxter,
Letta Mbulu,
Dave Gahan,
Marmalade,
Ronan,
Shuggie Otis,
Althea and Donna,
Frankie Knuckles,
Cecil Taylor,
Roy Ayers,
The Toasters,
Lalann,
Peter & Gordon,
La Düsseldorf,
Amon Düül,
Au Pairs,
Deepchord,
Desert Stars,
Tropical Tobacco,
World's Most,
Michelle Simonal,
Juan Atkins,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Y Pants,
Graham Central Station,
Von Mondo,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Black Moon,
Loose Ends,
Wally Richardson,
Toni Rubio,
Colin Newman,
The Young Rascals,
Los Fastidios,
The Evens,
Groovy Waters,
Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight.
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.