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 Sri Lanka and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 FM Einheit. All the underground hits.
All Young Marble Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fad Gadget 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeff Lynne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pet Shop Boys,
KRS-One,
Boogie Down Productions,
Zero Boys,
Sexual Harrassment,
Fatback Band,
Pole,
Reuben Wilson,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Swell Maps,
Peter & Gordon,
MC5,
Excepter,
Gang Starr,
Quantec,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
L. Decosne,
Blancmange,
The Litter,
Gerry Rafferty,
ABBA,
Country Teasers,
DNA,
Buzzcocks,
Throbbing Gristle,
Delon & Dalcan,
Talk Talk,
The Fugs,
Black Moon,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Moby Grape,
Franke,
Jeff Mills,
June of 44,
Sound Behaviour,
Radio Birdman,
Dark Day,
Television,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Pretty Things,
Soft Cell,
This Heat,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Surgeon,
Yaz,
China Crisis,
Sandy B,
EPMD,
Swans,
Nico,
FM Einheit,
DJ Sneak,
Marine Girls,
Brass Construction,
Spandau Ballet,
Technova,
Gang Green,
Banda Bassotti,
Organ,
Pylon, Pylon, Pylon, Pylon.
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.