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 Tanzania and from Shanghai.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the 808 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 Maurizio to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Barrington Levy,
This Heat,
Excepter,
CMW,
June of 44,
the Bar-Kays,
Ultra Naté,
Black Moon,
Circle Jerks,
Little Man,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Unwound,
Pantytec,
Kerri Chandler,
Sexual Harrassment,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
ABC,
Silicon Teens,
Slick Rick,
Second Layer,
Kaleidoscope,
Gang Green,
Massinfluence,
Kas Product,
John Foxx,
Moby Grape,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lalann,
Don Cherry,
Technova,
Radiopuhelimet,
Harmonia,
Yellowson,
Matthew Halsall,
Roxette,
The Associates,
Eden Ahbez,
Lou Christie,
Oblivians,
Fugazi,
Can,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Susan Cadogan,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Jacob Miller,
Barry Ungar,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
the Association,
Robert Görl,
The Five Americans,
John Cale,
Rosa Yemen,
Davy DMX,
Easy Going,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Red Krayola,
Derrick May,
Aaron Thompson,
Josef K,
Royal Trux,
Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front.
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.