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 Albania 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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the theremin 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 Duran Duran to the punk 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 Trumans Water. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Can 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Black Flag record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Letta Mbulu,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Gong,
Toni Rubio,
Sonic Youth,
Blancmange,
Q65,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Amon Düül II,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
10cc,
Shoche,
David Axelrod,
Joyce Sims,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Sister Nancy,
The United States of America,
AZ,
The Fortunes,
Lakeside,
Lou Christie,
Silicon Teens,
Sight & Sound,
the Human League,
The Velvet Underground,
Tom Boy,
The Pretty Things,
Can,
Quando Quango,
The Martian,
Glenn Branca,
Tomorrow,
The Evens,
Quadrant,
The Grass Roots,
OOIOO,
The Beau Brummels,
The Dirtbombs,
the Germs,
Buzzcocks,
The Star Department,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rites of Spring,
Andrew Hill,
Jimmy McGriff,
Bang On A Can,
Echospace,
Sun City Girls,
Lungfish,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Anthony Braxton,
Stereo Dub,
The Neon Judgement,
Groovy Waters,
Scratch Acid,
The Last Poets,
Erykah Badu,
The Mummies,
Donald Byrd,
Babytalk,
Model 500, Model 500, Model 500, Model 500.
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.