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 Lithuania and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Basic Channel to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Cluster. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cal Tjader record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Womack,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Stereo Dub,
The Fuzztones,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Fall,
The Golliwogs,
The Vogues,
The Human League,
This Heat,
Kurtis Blow,
Pylon,
The New Christs,
Public Image Ltd.,
Scrapy,
Alice Coltrane,
Bauhaus,
LL Cool J,
Marvin Gaye,
Hashim,
Lalann,
Rod Modell,
Unrelated Segments,
Traffic Nightmare,
Duran Duran,
Little Man,
the Soft Cell,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Wolf Eyes,
The Buckinghams,
Hardrive,
Warsaw,
Marine Girls,
Kerrie Biddell,
Public Enemy,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Lower 48,
Los Fastidios,
A Certain Ratio,
Wire,
Rites of Spring,
Roxy Music,
10cc,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Bobby Byrd,
Derrick May,
Absolute Body Control,
Man Eating Sloth,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sonic Youth,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Masters at Work,
Grandmaster Flash,
Derrick Morgan,
China Crisis,
The Cramps,
The Martian,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Alison Limerick,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk.
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.