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 Congo and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Sällskapet. All the underground hits.
All Tears for Fears tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gichy Dan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barrington Levy,
Bang On A Can,
The Happenings,
Monolake,
Ludus,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Q65,
Tears for Fears,
Laurel Aitken,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Chrome,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Alice Coltrane,
Traffic Nightmare,
Scratch Acid,
Lindisfarne,
Sex Pistols,
Smog,
Schoolly D,
The Fall,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Cybotron,
Brothers Johnson,
Marshall Jefferson,
Ultra Naté,
Babytalk,
Bluetip,
Sarah Menescal,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rufus Thomas,
Bootsy Collins,
Kenny Larkin,
LL Cool J,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Q and Not U,
Roxette,
The Victims,
Soft Cell,
David Axelrod,
Ituana,
Youth Brigade,
David McCallum,
La Düsseldorf,
The Last Poets,
Harry Pussy,
The Knickerbockers,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Angels of Light,
The Blackbyrds,
Gerry Rafferty,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Jandek,
Roger Hodgson,
Amon Düül II,
Funky Four + One,
Supertramp,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity.
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.