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 Fiji and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 arpeggiator 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 Nirvana to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Star Department record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Invisible record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Buckinghams,
The Motions,
Audionom,
Lebanon Hanover,
DJ Sneak,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Skatalites,
The Slits,
Yusef Lateef,
David McCallum,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Matthew Bourne,
Lightning Bolt,
Guru Guru,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Todd Terry,
Tom Boy,
The Associates,
Johnny Clarke,
Nik Kershaw,
Rekid,
the Soft Cell,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Cybotron,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Mantronix,
Von Mondo,
Bobby Sherman,
Aloha Tigers,
PIL,
The Cramps,
Essential Logic,
Robert Görl,
Soft Machine,
Camouflage,
Alice Coltrane,
Skarface,
Pylon,
KRS-One,
X-Ray Spex,
Siglo XX,
Kas Product,
Iggy Pop,
MDC,
Moebius,
Archie Shepp,
Kenny Larkin,
Nick Fraelich,
Peter & Gordon,
Rufus Thomas,
Animal Collective,
Eddi Front,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Silicon Teens,
The New Christs,
Absolute Body Control,
Lyres,
Average White Band,
Brass Construction,
Marc Almond,
Deadbeat,
Grey Daturas,
Angry Samoans,
The Standells, The Standells, The Standells, The Standells.
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.