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 Andorra and from Mumbai.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Black Sheep to the funk 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 Fear. All the underground hits.
All Country Joe & The Fish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Steve Hackett record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Byron Stingily record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Saccharine Trust,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lower 48,
Subhumans,
Henry Cow,
The Last Poets,
Connie Case,
the Slits,
Mr. Review,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Ralphi Rosario,
Public Enemy,
Groovy Waters,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Associates,
Rosa Yemen,
Erykah Badu,
Slick Rick,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Buzzcocks,
The Flesh Eaters,
Jeff Mills,
Suburban Knight,
Spandau Ballet,
The Knickerbockers,
Johnny Osbourne,
Avey Tare,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Banda Bassotti,
Pussy Galore,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
E-Dancer,
Scan 7,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Electric Prunes,
The Durutti Column,
Soulsonic Force,
The Real Kids,
Model 500,
Joe Finger,
Scratch Acid,
Piero Umiliani,
Tres Demented,
Panda Bear,
Wire,
Quando Quango,
Wolf Eyes,
Peter & Gordon,
Magma,
the Normal,
Monolake,
Curtis Mayfield,
Absolute Body Control,
B.T. Express,
Donny Hathaway,
Kaleidoscope,
The Invisible,
The Seeds,
Depeche Mode,
Soul II Soul,
The Raincoats, The Raincoats, The Raincoats, The Raincoats.
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.