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 Oman and from Copenhagen.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro 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 ABC to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Rapeman. All the underground hits.
All Crooked Eye tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Eating Sloth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Parry Music,
Schoolly D,
Sight & Sound,
Aaron Thompson,
Moss Icon,
Outsiders,
Aloha Tigers,
Jerry Gold Smith,
CMW,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Niagra,
Loose Ends,
The Golliwogs,
Bauhaus,
Rufus Thomas,
Ultra Naté,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Fuzztones,
Pagans,
Jerry's Kids,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Fatback Band,
Bobby Womack,
Public Image Ltd.,
Michelle Simonal,
Cluster,
Henry Cow,
Johnny Osbourne,
Alison Limerick,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Franke,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The American Breed,
Funky Four + One,
Roxette,
Minnie Riperton,
the Bar-Kays,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Motorama,
Robert Wyatt,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Tears for Fears,
Erasure,
Scrapy,
The Pretty Things,
Intrusion,
Make Up,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Cheater Slicks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Tommy Roe,
The Raincoats,
Soft Cell,
Boz Scaggs,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Dual Sessions,
Soul Sonic Force,
Arthur Verocai,
Eric B and Rakim,
Alice Coltrane,
Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick.
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.