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 Samoa and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson 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 The New Christs. All the underground hits.
All Aloha Tigers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magma record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Gang Dance,
Arcadia,
Delta 5,
Donny Hathaway,
Cecil Taylor,
Brick,
The Divine Comedy,
Lou Reed,
Ornette Coleman,
Make Up,
Anakelly,
Black Moon,
Joyce Sims,
Janne Schatter,
The Dirtbombs,
Harmonia,
David Axelrod,
Average White Band,
Connie Case,
Pantaleimon,
Bronski Beat,
Prince Buster,
Fatback Band,
Absolute Body Control,
10cc,
Juan Atkins,
The Gap Band,
Gabor Szabo,
Minutemen,
Tropical Tobacco,
Angry Samoans,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lebanon Hanover,
Scan 7,
Fear,
Carl Craig,
Toni Rubio,
Sonic Youth,
Johnny Clarke,
Joe Smooth,
Altered Images,
Drive Like Jehu,
Theoretical Girls,
Qualms,
Duran Duran,
Amazonics,
Pylon,
Lungfish,
Eden Ahbez,
James White and The Blacks,
One Last Wish,
Sarah Menescal,
Godley & Creme,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Underground Resistance,
Gang of Four,
Oblivians,
Loose Ends,
Unwound,
The Count Five,
The Young Rascals,
The Moody Blues,
the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell.
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.