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 Ethiopia and from Hong Kong.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 One Last Wish to the grunge 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 J.B.'s. All the underground hits.
All Sunsets and Hearts tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Juan Atkins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alice Coltrane record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Clear Light,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Aaron Thompson,
The Fire Engines,
Wally Richardson,
The Selecter,
The Doors,
Vladislav Delay,
John Lydon,
Blancmange,
Zapp,
Kevin Saunderson,
Bauhaus,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Fluxion,
The Monochrome Set,
Skaos,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Barclay James Harvest,
June Days,
One Last Wish,
Nirvana,
The Human League,
Lee Hazlewood,
Cameo,
Angry Samoans,
Gang Starr,
Cheater Slicks,
The Electric Prunes,
Saccharine Trust,
Oblivians,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
JFA,
Junior Murvin,
Magazine,
the Association,
Howard Jones,
The Move,
Spoonie Gee,
Popol Vuh,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Harpers Bizarre,
Amon Düül II,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Underground Resistance,
Barbara Tucker,
Warsaw,
Erykah Badu,
Ponytail,
Lou Christie,
Archie Shepp,
Davy DMX,
Intrusion,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Aswad,
Funkadelic,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Last Poets,
Roxy Music,
A Certain Ratio,
Black Bananas,
The Evens,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wings, Wings, Wings, Wings.
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.