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 Mongolia and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 guitar 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 Man Parrish to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Cabaret Voltaire. All the underground hits.
All Pharoah Sanders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fatback Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sister Nancy,
Spoonie Gee,
Chrome,
Heaven 17,
Negative Approach,
Alphaville,
Gabor Szabo,
Sight & Sound,
Crooked Eye,
Surgeon,
John Coltrane,
L. Decosne,
Tim Buckley,
Blake Baxter,
Dual Sessions,
Moby Grape,
Kerri Chandler,
Malaria!,
Roxette,
Erasure,
Ronnie Foster,
Pulsallama,
Black Flag,
Pole,
The Dead C,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tropical Tobacco,
DNA,
Rufus Thomas,
Funkadelic,
Sam Rivers,
Aural Exciters,
Ronan,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Franke,
Mad Mike,
cv313,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Rhythm & Sound,
Robert Wyatt,
Minnie Riperton,
The Alarm Clocks,
Soul II Soul,
Pussy Galore,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
MDC,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Tremeloes,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
One Last Wish,
Con Funk Shun,
The Music Machine,
Swell Maps,
Mission of Burma,
The Techniques,
Brick,
Bobby Byrd,
Los Fastidios,
Girls At Our Best!,
FM Einheit,
Duran Duran,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Fortunes,
Peter & Gordon, Peter & Gordon, Peter & Gordon, Peter & Gordon.
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.