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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Shanghai.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin 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 The Human League 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 Dark Day. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Wake 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The New Christs,
Los Fastidios,
Joy Division,
Sugar Minott,
Ronnie Foster,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Echospace,
The Pretty Things,
Sun Ra,
Joey Negro,
This Heat,
The Shadows of Knight,
China Crisis,
FM Einheit,
Radio Birdman,
ABBA,
Mandrill,
Rakim,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Lakeside,
Radiohead,
The Tremeloes,
AZ,
Kerrie Biddell,
John Coltrane,
L. Decosne,
The Kinks,
Wasted Youth,
Scan 7,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
48th St. Collective,
Pylon,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Jeff Lynne,
Television,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Trojans,
Lou Christie,
Interpol,
Soulsonic Force,
Technova,
Cameo,
Isaac Hayes,
Basic Channel,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Amon Düül II,
Mark Hollis,
Dave Gahan,
MC5,
Don Cherry,
Bobby Womack,
Maleditus Sound,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
David Bowie,
Television Personalities,
EPMD,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Peter & Gordon,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Parry Music,
Steve Hackett,
Crash Course in Science,
Cymande, Cymande, Cymande, Cymande.
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.