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 Swaziland and from Paris.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba 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 Scrapy to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 The Mighty Diamonds. All the underground hits.
All The Fugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Steve Hackett record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Trumans Water,
K-Klass,
Crispian St. Peters,
Average White Band,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Eurythmics,
Swans,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Durutti Column,
Simply Red,
Joey Negro,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Jerry's Kids,
Urselle,
Albert Ayler,
Dorothy Ashby,
Tom Boy,
Ossler,
Charles Mingus,
Crooked Eye,
Kool Moe Dee,
Kerrie Biddell,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Moby Grape,
The Golliwogs,
F. McDonald,
Quando Quango,
Gil Scott Heron,
Magazine,
Alison Limerick,
Public Enemy,
Don Cherry,
Con Funk Shun,
Bootsy Collins,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
New Age Steppers,
Dawn Penn,
Eve St. Jones,
Soft Cell,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Avey Tare,
The Cowsills,
Sandy B,
Public Image Ltd.,
Swell Maps,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Danielle Patucci,
In Retrospect,
Deadbeat,
Throbbing Gristle,
Qualms,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
the Human League,
Hashim,
Joyce Sims,
Reuben Wilson,
Derrick May,
Dark Day,
Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage.
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.