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 Laos and from Houston.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Copenhagen.
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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Ultramagnetic MC's to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 MDC. All the underground hits.
All Derrick May tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every New York Dolls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sällskapet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radio Birdman,
The Invisible,
Dawn Penn,
Spoonie Gee,
Ultimate Spinach,
Crooked Eye,
Duran Duran,
Scott Walker,
The Black Dice,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ohio Players,
Danielle Patucci,
Agitation Free,
Harmonia,
Essential Logic,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Evens,
The Last Poets,
The Star Department,
Marvin Gaye,
Connie Case,
Lee Hazlewood,
Swans,
Dead Boys,
World's Most,
Youth Brigade,
Drexciya,
The Buckinghams,
Surgeon,
Joey Negro,
The Fugs,
Lyres,
the Normal,
The New Christs,
Scion,
A Certain Ratio,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Lower 48,
E-Dancer,
Scratch Acid,
The Vogues,
Michelle Simonal,
Slick Rick,
JFA,
Rakim,
The Smiths,
Juan Atkins,
Bronski Beat,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Sonics,
H. Thieme,
Bush Tetras,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Interpol,
Monks,
Little Man,
The Fuzztones,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape.
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.