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 Senegal and from Taipei.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Swell Maps to the disco kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Be Bop Deluxe. All the underground hits.
All Crooked Eye tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gladiators record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mary Jane Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ten City,
Sound Behaviour,
Sandy B,
The Techniques,
Liliput,
Maurizio,
Fela Kuti,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Ultra Naté,
Joey Negro,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
DNA,
The Count Five,
Chris & Cosey,
The Offenders,
Duran Duran,
Radio Birdman,
Glambeats Corp.,
Ronnie Foster,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Stooges,
Jacques Brel,
Oneida,
The Doors,
Danielle Patucci,
In Retrospect,
Gang Starr,
Quadrant,
The Trojans,
Sight & Sound,
Girls At Our Best!,
Drexciya,
48th St. Collective,
Monolake,
The Residents,
Grey Daturas,
Dorothy Ashby,
Saccharine Trust,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Moleskins,
Quando Quango,
Motorama,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Althea and Donna,
Arab on Radar,
The Five Americans,
Matthew Halsall,
Glenn Branca,
Au Pairs,
The Pretty Things,
Black Sheep,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Bizarre Inc.,
Zapp,
Dead Boys,
Bad Manners,
Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd.
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.