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 Tanzania and from Mexico City.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Lille.
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 linndrum 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 David Axelrod to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Red Krayola. All the underground hits.
All Surgeon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalo Schifrin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Agitation Free record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dead C,
the Bar-Kays,
Lalo Schifrin,
Kaleidoscope,
Adolescents,
Thee Headcoats,
Fluxion,
Gil Scott Heron,
Outsiders,
EPMD,
Charles Mingus,
Animal Collective,
World's Most,
Alice Coltrane,
Graham Central Station,
Smog,
Eddi Front,
Toni Rubio,
Sun City Girls,
Little Man,
Accadde A,
Youth Brigade,
Japan,
Grey Daturas,
Slave,
Rakim,
Masters at Work,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Gregory Isaacs,
the Swans,
Rekid,
Icehouse,
Erasure,
The Monks,
Country Teasers,
Pantaleimon,
Silicon Teens,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
These Immortal Souls,
Moss Icon,
Aloha Tigers,
Drexciya,
Whodini,
Crime,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Max Romeo,
Hashim,
Roy Ayers,
Dead Boys,
Flash Fearless,
Main Source,
Jacques Brel,
The Grass Roots,
Skaos,
Scrapy,
Henry Cow,
X-101,
Derrick May,
The Kinks,
Sun Ra,
Harmonia,
Popol Vuh,
Howard Jones,
Patti Smith,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.