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 Grenada and from Salvador.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Laurel Aitken to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Spandau Ballet. All the underground hits.
All Kas Product tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rahsaan Roland Kirk 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Index record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Buzzcocks,
Blossom Toes,
The Evens,
Derrick Morgan,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Flash Fearless,
Jerry's Kids,
Loose Ends,
The Toasters,
Agent Orange,
Matthew Halsall,
Eli Mardock,
Sixth Finger,
Ronnie Foster,
The Real Kids,
Banda Bassotti,
The Blues Magoos,
DNA,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Trojans,
Wings,
The Gladiators,
Brass Construction,
Sugar Minott,
The Cowsills,
Soft Machine,
The Black Dice,
Ken Boothe,
Funkadelic,
Yellowson,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Zeros,
Toni Rubio,
Surgeon,
Radio Birdman,
Bill Wells,
The Martian,
Prince Buster,
Simply Red,
Faust,
F. McDonald,
Godley & Creme,
Essential Logic,
Make Up,
Nick Fraelich,
Jacques Brel,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Derrick May,
Grauzone,
Minutemen,
Susan Cadogan,
The Last Poets,
Bill Near,
The Slits,
Bootsy Collins,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Graham Central Station,
Eric Dolphy,
Kaleidoscope,
Mission of Burma,
The Buckinghams,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.