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 Palau and from Manila.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the güiro 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 The Birthday Party to the rap 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 Fifty Foot Hose. All the underground hits.
All Bobbi Humphrey tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Whodini 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Loose Ends,
Aloha Tigers,
Whodini,
Das Ding,
the Association,
Toni Rubio,
Absolute Body Control,
This Heat,
Oneida,
Grey Daturas,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Blancmange,
Chris Corsano,
Peter and Kerry,
Marine Girls,
The Smoke,
John Foxx,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Pagans,
Lebanon Hanover,
Juan Atkins,
Anthony Braxton,
Rufus Thomas,
John Holt,
Unrelated Segments,
Niagra,
The Zeros,
Reuben Wilson,
The Raincoats,
Ice-T,
Sonny Sharrock,
Joey Negro,
Robert Hood,
Boz Scaggs,
Robert Wyatt,
The Wake,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
X-Ray Spex,
Sexual Harrassment,
Curtis Mayfield,
Terry Callier,
Supertramp,
Massinfluence,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Deadbeat,
Thee Headcoats,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Warren Ellis,
Lightning Bolt,
The Skatalites,
Bluetip,
a-ha,
Joe Finger,
Reagan Youth,
The Leaves,
The Toasters,
LL Cool J,
The Kinks,
The Golliwogs,
The Moleskins,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Arab on Radar,
Barbara Tucker,
Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone.
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.