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 Nauru and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ken Boothe to the dance 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 Cymande. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zero Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Harry Pussy,
Marcia Griffiths,
Theoretical Girls,
Von Mondo,
Althea and Donna,
Eric B and Rakim,
Camouflage,
Pylon,
Guru Guru,
Man Eating Sloth,
Cybotron,
The Knickerbockers,
Faraquet,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
PIL,
Bush Tetras,
Mars,
Scion,
Con Funk Shun,
H. Thieme,
The Electric Prunes,
Gastr Del Sol,
Matthew Bourne,
Tom Boy,
Brothers Johnson,
Mary Jane Girls,
Malaria!,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Wake,
Jacques Brel,
Janne Schatter,
The Dirtbombs,
The Last Poets,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
the Bar-Kays,
New York Dolls,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Fall,
Scratch Acid,
Black Bananas,
Rotary Connection,
Heaven 17,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Bill Near,
Dorothy Ashby,
Lower 48,
The Five Americans,
Electric Prunes,
Eric Copeland,
Joey Negro,
Lou Reed,
The Mummies,
Joe Finger,
Pere Ubu,
The Litter,
Rites of Spring,
Hasil Adkins,
The Fortunes,
Rekid, Rekid, Rekid, Rekid.
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.