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 Saudi Arabia and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 synthesizer 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 Jerry's Kids to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Names. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Clarke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every David Axelrod record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cymande record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Monks,
Surgeon,
Youth Brigade,
Mantronix,
Nation of Ulysses,
Alice Coltrane,
Joe Smooth,
Don Cherry,
Guru Guru,
Hashim,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Laurel Aitken,
Minnie Riperton,
Shuggie Otis,
The Toasters,
Ten City,
Aloha Tigers,
Scan 7,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Unrelated Segments,
Bobby Byrd,
Wasted Youth,
The Saints,
OOIOO,
Donny Hathaway,
the Germs,
Todd Rundgren,
Gregory Isaacs,
Bad Manners,
Negative Approach,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
the Human League,
Outsiders,
Jerry's Kids,
48th St. Collective,
KRS-One,
Cal Tjader,
Oneida,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Model 500,
Can,
The Shadows of Knight,
Harmonia,
Todd Terry,
The Cramps,
Pulsallama,
Lalann,
Yazoo,
The Vogues,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Radio Birdman,
Pantytec,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Dual Sessions,
Rotary Connection,
Marcia Griffiths,
Electric Prunes,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Ituana,
Minor Threat,
Josef K,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA.
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.