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 Kosovo and from Glasgow.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Derrick May to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 China Crisis. All the underground hits.
All The Smiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heavy D & The Boyz 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
KRS-One,
Fat Boys,
Danielle Patucci,
Banda Bassotti,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Byron Stingily,
a-ha,
Mad Mike,
Cecil Taylor,
Joyce Sims,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Monks,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
La Düsseldorf,
The Raincoats,
Flash Fearless,
Stiv Bators,
The Last Poets,
Jacques Brel,
Whodini,
Funky Four + One,
Josef K,
New Age Steppers,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Moody Blues,
Yusef Lateef,
Rakim,
John Coltrane,
Skaos,
The Divine Comedy,
Half Japanese,
Harry Pussy,
This Heat,
Lower 48,
Roxette,
Motorama,
Cluster,
Gang of Four,
Sun Ra,
Monks,
Angry Samoans,
Dual Sessions,
Country Teasers,
China Crisis,
The Doobie Brothers,
Derrick Morgan,
Funkadelic,
B.T. Express,
World's Most,
Jerry's Kids,
Chris & Cosey,
Brothers Johnson,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Althea and Donna,
Sonic Youth,
Essential Logic,
Cameo,
The Pop Group,
the Soft Cell,
Judy Mowatt,
Ice-T,
8 Eyed Spy,
Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin.
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.