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 Ukraine 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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 Alison Limerick to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lindisfarne. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a OOIOO record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Idris Muhammad,
The Tremeloes,
Talk Talk,
The Cowsills,
Kenny Larkin,
Main Source,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Leaves,
Unrelated Segments,
Sight & Sound,
Heaven 17,
Lucky Dragons,
Shuggie Otis,
LL Cool J,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Swans,
Minutemen,
Index,
Pulsallama,
Roxy Music,
Malaria!,
Prince Buster,
One Last Wish,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Grauzone,
The Zeros,
Ralphi Rosario,
Radiohead,
Chrome,
Procol Harum,
CMW,
Joe Finger,
The Mojo Men,
Tubeway Army,
Robert Wyatt,
Hashim,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Barbara Tucker,
Morten Harket,
The Modern Lovers,
In Retrospect,
Drexciya,
Sun City Girls,
Terrestrial Tones,
Hoover,
The Velvet Underground,
Donald Byrd,
L. Decosne,
The Gap Band,
Bootsy Collins,
Brand Nubian,
Quantec,
Newcleus,
The Move,
A Certain Ratio,
Massinfluence,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jandek,
Los Fastidios,
Little Man,
Brick,
Blake Baxter,
Juan Atkins, Juan Atkins, Juan Atkins, Juan Atkins.
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.