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 Pakistan and from Accra.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Calgary.
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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Sonny Sharrock to the electroclash 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 Moebius. All the underground hits.
All Porter Ricks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Massinfluence record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ash Ra Tempel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ornette Coleman,
The Move,
Barbara Tucker,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Yazoo,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Associates,
Lebanon Hanover,
Black Bananas,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Excepter,
La Düsseldorf,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Smiths,
Tears for Fears,
Duran Duran,
Kaleidoscope,
John Holt,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
DNA,
China Crisis,
Kurtis Blow,
The Electric Prunes,
Pussy Galore,
Neil Young,
Derrick Morgan,
Surgeon,
Negative Approach,
Hoover,
Wire,
Soul II Soul,
The Music Machine,
David Axelrod,
The Misunderstood,
Tubeway Army,
Tommy Roe,
Siglo XX,
Moebius,
World's Most,
Japan,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Al Stewart,
Hashim,
T. Rex,
The American Breed,
MDC,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
the Fania All-Stars,
Eve St. Jones,
Jeff Mills,
Basic Channel,
Alton Ellis,
Pet Shop Boys,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Flipper,
The Modern Lovers,
Howard Jones,
Marine Girls,
Crooked Eye,
Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker.
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.