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 Estonia and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 The Skatalites to the grunge 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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sight & Sound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cecil Taylor record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brothers Johnson,
June of 44,
Boogie Down Productions,
OOIOO,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Crispian St. Peters,
Susan Cadogan,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
X-101,
Arab on Radar,
JFA,
Sonic Youth,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Sex Pistols,
The Flesh Eaters,
Darondo,
Drive Like Jehu,
Hardrive,
Japan,
Make Up,
Carl Craig,
MC5,
The Selecter,
Bizarre Inc.,
Blancmange,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
X-102,
The Smoke,
the Slits,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Brick,
Joey Negro,
Blake Baxter,
Radiopuhelimet,
Marcia Griffiths,
Deakin,
Yaz,
Scrapy,
The American Breed,
Soul Sonic Force,
Brand Nubian,
Black Moon,
Main Source,
Al Stewart,
Bush Tetras,
Cameo,
James White and The Blacks,
The J.B.'s,
the Soft Cell,
Neu!,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Ken Boothe,
Pet Shop Boys,
Tropical Tobacco,
Camberwell Now,
The Black Dice,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Jerry's Kids,
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.