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 Uruguay 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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the güiro 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 Donald Byrd to the jazz 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 Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All Ralphi Rosario tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Adolescents 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Archie Shepp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Smog,
The Move,
The Zeros,
Lindisfarne,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pole,
UT,
The Modern Lovers,
Aswad,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Scion,
Sarah Menescal,
Little Man,
Gerry Rafferty,
Silicon Teens,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Black Moon,
Radiopuhelimet,
Maurizio,
Angry Samoans,
Circle Jerks,
Tim Buckley,
Boogie Down Productions,
James White and The Blacks,
Reagan Youth,
Wally Richardson,
Deadbeat,
Terrestrial Tones,
Robert Hood,
Can,
Soul Sonic Force,
Joe Smooth,
PIL,
The Real Kids,
EPMD,
Camberwell Now,
The Residents,
The Young Rascals,
Rekid,
Faraquet,
Quantec,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The American Breed,
Camouflage,
Unwound,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Kenny Larkin,
The Star Department,
The Skatalites,
Soulsonic Force,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
LL Cool J,
E-Dancer,
The Names,
Los Fastidios,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Throbbing Gristle,
Marshall Jefferson,
Brothers Johnson,
Rakim,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Cheater Slicks,
Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins.
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.