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 Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Andrew Hill to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Eric B and Rakim. All the underground hits.
All Brothers Johnson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Reuben Wilson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jeru the Damaja,
Motorama,
The Mummies,
Rosa Yemen,
Schoolly D,
Saccharine Trust,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Busters,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Lebanon Hanover,
Fifty Foot Hose,
H. Thieme,
Rufus Thomas,
Lungfish,
The Names,
Bizarre Inc.,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Soft Cell,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Blues Magoos,
June Days,
Altered Images,
Fugazi,
The Buckinghams,
The Skatalites,
Lou Reed,
The Red Krayola,
Crash Course in Science,
Barclay James Harvest,
Black Flag,
8 Eyed Spy,
Davy DMX,
Anthony Braxton,
The Five Americans,
Newcleus,
Althea and Donna,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Roxy Music,
Radiohead,
Funky Four + One,
Peter & Gordon,
Funkadelic,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Todd Rundgren,
Vainqueur,
The Last Poets,
The Martian,
The Residents,
Spoonie Gee,
Television,
Bobby Sherman,
Prince Buster,
The Gap Band,
Easy Going,
Eve St. Jones,
Deakin,
The Black Dice,
Dawn Penn,
Mission of Burma,
Byron Stingily,
Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour.
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.