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 Pakistan 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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Alphaville to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 June of 44. All the underground hits.
All Barrington Levy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joensuu 1685 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warsaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Funky Four + One,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Flash Fearless,
Con Funk Shun,
Ultra Naté,
Soul Sonic Force,
Quando Quango,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
a-ha,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Blackbyrds,
Kurtis Blow,
Ronan,
New York Dolls,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Rufus Thomas,
China Crisis,
Soul II Soul,
Scrapy,
The Gladiators,
Crime,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Alison Limerick,
Carl Craig,
Severed Heads,
The Neon Judgement,
Nas,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Grass Roots,
Girls At Our Best!,
Swans,
Sarah Menescal,
Porter Ricks,
Spandau Ballet,
The United States of America,
Dorothy Ashby,
Soulsonic Force,
The Techniques,
Nation of Ulysses,
Duran Duran,
The Pretty Things,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Alarm Clocks,
Japan,
The Music Machine,
Rekid,
FM Einheit,
Easy Going,
Lightning Bolt,
Tim Buckley,
Stetsasonic,
Moebius,
Silicon Teens,
8 Eyed Spy,
Quadrant,
Yusef Lateef,
The Flesh Eaters,
The American Breed,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.