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 Burkina and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Alice Coltrane to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lightning Bolt. All the underground hits.
All Zapp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeru the Damaja,
Easy Going,
Loose Ends,
The Move,
Livin' Joy,
Sun Ra,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Black Pus,
Bobby Byrd,
Boredoms,
Model 500,
Roxette,
Pagans,
Lee Hazlewood,
Youth Brigade,
Public Enemy,
The Blues Magoos,
R.M.O.,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dead Boys,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Camouflage,
Harpers Bizarre,
Monolake,
Arab on Radar,
Marcia Griffiths,
LL Cool J,
John Cale,
Pet Shop Boys,
Main Source,
The Grass Roots,
Girls At Our Best!,
Rites of Spring,
Urselle,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Skriet,
Anthony Braxton,
Silicon Teens,
The Divine Comedy,
T. Rex,
Porter Ricks,
Yazoo,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bobby Womack,
the Slits,
The Human League,
New Age Steppers,
Boz Scaggs,
Sarah Menescal,
Bizarre Inc.,
Ituana,
Amon Düül,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sam Rivers,
Tommy Roe,
The Martian,
Pierre Henry,
Bluetip,
Mission of Burma,
Big Daddy Kane,
10cc,
These Immortal Souls,
Darondo,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.