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 Togo and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Blake Baxter to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Slackers. All the underground hits.
All Young Marble Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brass Construction record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thee Headcoats record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mantronix,
Intrusion,
Neu!,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Magma,
Ohio Players,
The Stooges,
Godley & Creme,
Moby Grape,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Jeff Mills,
The Five Americans,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Man Parrish,
Von Mondo,
DNA,
La Düsseldorf,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Blues Magoos,
Alice Coltrane,
Crispy Ambulance,
Reuben Wilson,
Newcleus,
Groovy Waters,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Pylon,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Mo-Dettes,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Agent Orange,
the Soft Cell,
Joy Division,
Q and Not U,
The Moleskins,
The Blackbyrds,
Man Eating Sloth,
Tomorrow,
Amazonics,
The Gladiators,
Oblivians,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
UT,
Adolescents,
X-101,
Minnie Riperton,
The Monochrome Set,
Aloha Tigers,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Misunderstood,
CMW,
Siglo XX,
the Slits,
Sixth Finger,
Kevin Saunderson,
MDC,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Mark Hollis,
Laurel Aitken,
The Invisible,
Oneida,
The Dave Clark Five,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.