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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Ossler to the rock 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 The Birthday Party. All the underground hits.
All Ralphi Rosario tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Womack record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Leonard Cohen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Christie,
The Five Americans,
Nik Kershaw,
Eric B and Rakim,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Pretty Things,
L. Decosne,
Soft Cell,
Duran Duran,
The J.B.'s,
Barclay James Harvest,
Crash Course in Science,
EPMD,
Morten Harket,
Max Romeo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Durutti Column,
The Red Krayola,
John Lydon,
The Velvet Underground,
Vainqueur,
Yellowson,
MDC,
Cymande,
Accadde A,
Organ,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Visage,
Gastr Del Sol,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Altered Images,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Public Image Ltd.,
Lightning Bolt,
Desert Stars,
Schoolly D,
Bad Manners,
Thompson Twins,
Alphaville,
Rhythm & Sound,
Brand Nubian,
Magazine,
Rotary Connection,
Amazonics,
China Crisis,
The Tremeloes,
Ornette Coleman,
Stetsasonic,
FM Einheit,
D'Angelo,
Reuben Wilson,
Pet Shop Boys,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Electric Prunes,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
the Soft Cell,
Jandek,
The Human League,
The Evens,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.