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 Libya and from Stockholm.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 X-Ray Spex to the disco 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 Technova. All the underground hits.
All Hoover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Easy Going 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell 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?
Barry Ungar,
Jawbox,
The Fuzztones,
Banda Bassotti,
The Gladiators,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Heaven 17,
Bobby Womack,
Black Sheep,
Ornette Coleman,
Anthony Braxton,
OOIOO,
The Count Five,
Popol Vuh,
Kaleidoscope,
Deadbeat,
Rakim,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
MC5,
Stockholm Monsters,
Fugazi,
The Smoke,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Wake,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Make Up,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Kurtis Blow,
Letta Mbulu,
Lee Hazlewood,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Terry Callier,
Bush Tetras,
Bad Manners,
Derrick Morgan,
The Walker Brothers,
Yellowson,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Alton Ellis,
Lindisfarne,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Jerry's Kids,
Tim Buckley,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Marvin Gaye,
Funkadelic,
Spoonie Gee,
Bill Near,
Jeff Lynne,
Maleditus Sound,
Sparks,
The Birthday Party,
Tomorrow,
Cymande,
Radiopuhelimet,
Nirvana,
Bizarre Inc.,
Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes.
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.