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 France and from Johannesburg.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Livin' Joy to the grime 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 Guru Guru. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shoche 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spoonie Gee record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rapeman,
MDC,
The Electric Prunes,
Crime,
Man Eating Sloth,
Zapp,
The Offenders,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Alphaville,
Byron Stingily,
Amon Düül II,
Magazine,
Soft Cell,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ice-T,
The Selecter,
Delta 5,
Ohio Players,
Cecil Taylor,
Camberwell Now,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
T.S.O.L.,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Modern Lovers,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
La Düsseldorf,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Rotary Connection,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Carl Craig,
Alton Ellis,
Khruangbin,
The Martian,
the Soft Cell,
Minor Threat,
Warsaw,
CMW,
Radiohead,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Spoonie Gee,
Minny Pops,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Barracudas,
Japan,
Barry Ungar,
Terry Callier,
Blancmange,
Slave,
Public Image Ltd.,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Kaleidoscope,
Marmalade,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Josef K,
The Index,
The Techniques,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Sex Pistols,
John Foxx,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone.
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.