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 Djibouti and from Delhi.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Hot Snakes to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Neu!. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Procol Harum 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mandrill record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sparks,
Rakim,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
E-Dancer,
Angry Samoans,
Guru Guru,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Tomorrow,
Leonard Cohen,
Shuggie Otis,
Swans,
Delta 5,
Black Bananas,
Sonic Youth,
Barrington Levy,
Scientists,
Pantytec,
Q65,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Newcleus,
MC5,
The Evens,
Pere Ubu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bronski Beat,
The Human League,
Curtis Mayfield,
Flamin' Groovies,
Crooked Eye,
ABBA,
Pharoah Sanders,
Archie Shepp,
The Dave Clark Five,
Albert Ayler,
Mission of Burma,
the Normal,
The United States of America,
Fatback Band,
Al Stewart,
F. McDonald,
D'Angelo,
Underground Resistance,
Piero Umiliani,
Matthew Halsall,
Terrestrial Tones,
Little Man,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
ABC,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Rosa Yemen,
These Immortal Souls,
Bobby Sherman,
Banda Bassotti,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Crispy Ambulance,
Schoolly D,
Nas,
Bush Tetras,
Skaos,
The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things.
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.