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 Estonia and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Michael McDonald 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 Clear Light to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Japan. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Parry Music record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum 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?
James Chance & The Contortions,
MC5,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
FM Einheit,
T. Rex,
Crash Course in Science,
The Sound,
Donny Hathaway,
Lebanon Hanover,
Heaven 17,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Detroit Cobras,
Flamin' Groovies,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Simply Red,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Human League,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lou Christie,
Oblivians,
Cymande,
The Grass Roots,
Adolescents,
Minnie Riperton,
Spoonie Gee,
Lungfish,
Max Romeo,
Can,
The Durutti Column,
Big Daddy Kane,
Loose Ends,
Ponytail,
Harry Pussy,
The Fugs,
Stetsasonic,
the Slits,
Livin' Joy,
ABBA,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
R.M.O.,
D'Angelo,
Johnny Clarke,
Echospace,
Wasted Youth,
Tomorrow,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Cramps,
Gang of Four,
The Red Krayola,
Bootsy Collins,
Boz Scaggs,
Rites of Spring,
Index,
The Modern Lovers,
Black Flag,
the Soft Cell,
Sugar Minott,
Mars,
Icehouse,
Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco.
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.