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 Dominican Republic and from Sao Paulo.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the guitar 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 Kevin Saunderson to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell. All the underground hits.
All Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacques Brel,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Jandek,
Max Romeo,
Smog,
Eric B and Rakim,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
a-ha,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Music Machine,
Robert Görl,
Ronnie Foster,
Lou Reed,
Crash Course in Science,
The Grass Roots,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Robert Hood,
Bauhaus,
Agitation Free,
The Slits,
Au Pairs,
Bush Tetras,
Peter and Kerry,
The Cure,
Byron Stingily,
Massinfluence,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Whodini,
John Holt,
Isaac Hayes,
New Order,
Pulsallama,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ludus,
Desert Stars,
Royal Trux,
The Fortunes,
Pole,
Reagan Youth,
Amon Düül II,
The Dead C,
Little Man,
Zero Boys,
Ice-T,
Popol Vuh,
Eric Copeland,
Tomorrow,
Television Personalities,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Swans,
Mo-Dettes,
Juan Atkins,
The Offenders,
48th St. Collective,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
UT,
Tom Boy,
Quando Quango,
Television,
Panda Bear,
Liliput, Liliput, Liliput, Liliput.
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.