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 Barbados and from London.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Alphaville to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Jacques Brel. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radiohead record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
This Heat,
Colin Newman,
X-Ray Spex,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Monolake,
Gastr Del Sol,
New Order,
The Durutti Column,
The Gun Club,
Television Personalities,
Technova,
The Real Kids,
Moebius,
Basic Channel,
The Walker Brothers,
Godley & Creme,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Lungfish,
Robert Hood,
K-Klass,
Bad Manners,
Deadbeat,
Arab on Radar,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Babytalk,
Rites of Spring,
Stetsasonic,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Agitation Free,
Donny Hathaway,
Isaac Hayes,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Kinks,
KRS-One,
Janne Schatter,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Derrick May,
Michelle Simonal,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Saints,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Ultra Naté,
The Gladiators,
Cameo,
Jawbox,
The Monks,
Letta Mbulu,
Brick,
Dual Sessions,
Joe Smooth,
Ponytail,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
David McCallum,
Peter & Gordon,
E-Dancer,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The American Breed,
Tears for Fears,
Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless.
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.