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 Dominica and from Copenhagen.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Bang On A Can to the punk 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 Donny Hathaway. All the underground hits.
All Eyeless In Gaza tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a David McCallum record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dave Gahan,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Searchers,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lalann,
Slave,
Sarah Menescal,
Flash Fearless,
Outsiders,
Don Cherry,
The Cure,
Gang Green,
The Five Americans,
Public Image Ltd.,
Altered Images,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Gun Club,
Theoretical Girls,
Black Bananas,
Jacques Brel,
Sonny Sharrock,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Electric Prunes,
Faust,
China Crisis,
Josef K,
Arab on Radar,
Fatback Band,
Kurtis Blow,
The Residents,
Leonard Cohen,
Johnny Clarke,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Prince Buster,
Ralphi Rosario,
Jacob Miller,
D'Angelo,
Icehouse,
The Raincoats,
Television Personalities,
The Mummies,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
FM Einheit,
Amazonics,
Danielle Patucci,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Throbbing Gristle,
Funkadelic,
Soulsonic Force,
Hashim,
The Monks,
Magazine,
Faraquet,
The Music Machine,
Ronan,
Bill Near,
Symarip,
Clear Light,
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana.
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.