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 San Marino and from Beijing.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Stetsasonic to the jazz 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 Yaz. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jerry's Kids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Invisible record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Dolphy,
Pole,
Andrew Hill,
Wally Richardson,
The Durutti Column,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Fad Gadget,
Subhumans,
Charles Mingus,
The Grass Roots,
Ronnie Foster,
Excepter,
Traffic Nightmare,
PIL,
Gastr Del Sol,
Franke,
D'Angelo,
Todd Rundgren,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
World's Most,
James White and The Blacks,
Rites of Spring,
Soulsonic Force,
Jeff Lynne,
Brand Nubian,
Country Teasers,
Amon Düül,
Metal Thangz,
The Buckinghams,
Bush Tetras,
The Moleskins,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Guru Guru,
Throbbing Gristle,
John Holt,
Fat Boys,
Pulsallama,
Marine Girls,
Boz Scaggs,
John Cale,
The Flesh Eaters,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Amon Düül II,
The Cure,
Cluster,
Wolf Eyes,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Standells,
Lalo Schifrin,
Black Sheep,
Joyce Sims,
Mad Mike,
ABC,
Alphaville,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Jacques Brel,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf.
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.