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 Malawi and from Winnipeg.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 808 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 Gastr Del Sol to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Ronan. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lightning Bolt 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Beasts of Bourbon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pretty Things,
Half Japanese,
Prince Buster,
The Cowsills,
Susan Cadogan,
AZ,
U.S. Maple,
Dorothy Ashby,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Blake Baxter,
The Durutti Column,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Offenders,
Bill Wells,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sparks,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David Axelrod,
Drexciya,
Jeff Mills,
Ralphi Rosario,
Youth Brigade,
Magazine,
The Electric Prunes,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Index,
Johnny Osbourne,
Intrusion,
ABBA,
The Red Krayola,
Lungfish,
Lou Reed,
Sun Ra,
Tears for Fears,
The Litter,
Amon Düül,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Delon & Dalcan,
Von Mondo,
Sound Behaviour,
Pharoah Sanders,
Quantec,
Rod Modell,
Circle Jerks,
The Moody Blues,
The Last Poets,
Erykah Badu,
Los Fastidios,
Shoche,
Pantytec,
The Kinks,
Hot Snakes,
The Young Rascals,
Flash Fearless,
Soul Sonic Force,
John Cale,
Organ,
Minnie Riperton,
Roxy Music,
Sällskapet,
Negative Approach,
Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone.
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.