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 Macedonia and from Sao Paulo.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Shuggie Otis to the funk 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 Eric Copeland. All the underground hits.
All Los Fastidios tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pagans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cameo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Kinks,
Joyce Sims,
Arthur Verocai,
Sparks,
Minnie Riperton,
Sound Behaviour,
Jawbox,
The Fall,
David McCallum,
The Angels of Light,
The Vogues,
Hot Snakes,
Don Cherry,
Joe Finger,
A Certain Ratio,
Iggy Pop,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Skarface,
Man Parrish,
Pulsallama,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Spandau Ballet,
Warren Ellis,
Von Mondo,
Nirvana,
Dawn Penn,
Bronski Beat,
Procol Harum,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Tim Buckley,
Country Teasers,
Lebanon Hanover,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Pretty Things,
The Knickerbockers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Fela Kuti,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Funky Four + One,
The Five Americans,
The Names,
Spoonie Gee,
Scrapy,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Gichy Dan,
June of 44,
Zero Boys,
The Golliwogs,
Eli Mardock,
Mantronix,
Suburban Knight,
Negative Approach,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Unwound,
In Retrospect,
Aswad,
Marvin Gaye,
Barclay James Harvest,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Erasure, Erasure, Erasure, Erasure.
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.