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 Laos and from Tehran.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Ronan to the dance 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 Negative Approach. All the underground hits.
All The Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Sound 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Audionom,
Mandrill,
Pagans,
Throbbing Gristle,
Marine Girls,
Sonic Youth,
The Index,
F. McDonald,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
KRS-One,
The Angels of Light,
Magazine,
Minor Threat,
E-Dancer,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Grauzone,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Piero Umiliani,
Ponytail,
Masters at Work,
David Axelrod,
Electric Prunes,
Isaac Hayes,
the Soft Cell,
Terrestrial Tones,
Lee Hazlewood,
Matthew Halsall,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Roy Ayers,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Malaria!,
Rhythm & Sound,
Adolescents,
the Swans,
Man Eating Sloth,
ABC,
Don Cherry,
MC5,
Negative Approach,
Albert Ayler,
The Slits,
Skriet,
Joyce Sims,
Jeru the Damaja,
A Certain Ratio,
Godley & Creme,
Bauhaus,
Mantronix,
Mr. Review,
Tim Buckley,
Skarface,
Schoolly D,
The Selecter,
Country Teasers,
The Seeds,
New Order,
Harpers Bizarre,
Siglo XX,
Kayak,
X-101,
Althea and Donna,
The Five Americans,
the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays.
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.