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 Sri Lanka and from Accra.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Chrome to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Robert Görl. All the underground hits.
All Peter and Kerry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Section 25 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Pulsallama,
Pere Ubu,
Gregory Isaacs,
Johnny Osbourne,
Circle Jerks,
The Smoke,
Technova,
David Axelrod,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Barbara Tucker,
the Association,
Camberwell Now,
T. Rex,
Carl Craig,
Bobby Womack,
Q and Not U,
Yusef Lateef,
JFA,
Kool Moe Dee,
Warsaw,
Crime,
Charles Mingus,
Sun Ra,
10cc,
Lalo Schifrin,
Vainqueur,
Faust,
The Move,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Infiniti,
The Detroit Cobras,
In Retrospect,
The Toasters,
Dawn Penn,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Ken Boothe,
Mr. Review,
Peter & Gordon,
Sandy B,
James White and The Blacks,
X-101,
Jeff Mills,
Gichy Dan,
Marine Girls,
Cheater Slicks,
Patti Smith,
Gerry Rafferty,
Girls At Our Best!,
Josef K,
OOIOO,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Joey Negro,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Angry Samoans,
Flipper,
Siglo XX,
Sex Pistols,
Can,
Susan Cadogan,
Aaron Thompson,
Alice Coltrane,
The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators.
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.