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 Mongolia and from New York.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 theremin 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 Kings Of Tomorrow to the grunge 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 Fela Kuti. All the underground hits.
All Banda Bassotti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dead C,
David McCallum,
Wasted Youth,
Nation of Ulysses,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Ronnie Foster,
Oblivians,
Easy Going,
Todd Rundgren,
Vainqueur,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Deakin,
Depeche Mode,
Terrestrial Tones,
Reuben Wilson,
Adolescents,
Sixth Finger,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Pantaleimon,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Star Department,
Soft Cell,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Smiths,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Unrelated Segments,
Von Mondo,
Throbbing Gristle,
Infiniti,
Jesper Dahlback,
Fad Gadget,
Dorothy Ashby,
Toni Rubio,
Model 500,
The Divine Comedy,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Electric Prunes,
Ten City,
Pagans,
The Sonics,
Japan,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Cheater Slicks,
Donald Byrd,
the Bar-Kays,
Al Stewart,
E-Dancer,
Hoover,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Dennis Brown,
Jandek,
The Invisible,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Popol Vuh,
Lyres,
The Vogues,
Angry Samoans,
The Saints,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy.
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.