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 Swaziland and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Human League. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kevin Saunderson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Monochrome Set record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Saints,
Dennis Brown,
Kurtis Blow,
Infiniti,
Dawn Penn,
Nirvana,
Fluxion,
Porter Ricks,
Heaven 17,
The Cowsills,
Wings,
Ornette Coleman,
The Slackers,
Slave,
The Skatalites,
Sarah Menescal,
Silicon Teens,
The Dead C,
Zero Boys,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Hot Snakes,
Funky Four + One,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Smog,
Gerry Rafferty,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Anakelly,
Nas,
The Divine Comedy,
Sonny Sharrock,
Dead Boys,
Lou Reed,
ABBA,
Funkadelic,
Roxy Music,
The New Christs,
The Victims,
X-Ray Spex,
Susan Cadogan,
Gabor Szabo,
Circle Jerks,
Ultimate Spinach,
Barclay James Harvest,
Nik Kershaw,
Skriet,
Technova,
Monks,
Whodini,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Jimmy McGriff,
the Swans,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Names,
Mad Mike,
The Cramps,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Subhumans,
The Zeros,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Aswad,
Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins.
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.