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 Costa Rica and from Toronto.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
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 Rosa Yemen to the techno 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 Con Funk Shun. All the underground hits.
All Aaron Thompson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Evens record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grey Daturas,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Moleskins,
Gang Starr,
Chrome,
Roy Ayers,
Pantaleimon,
Judy Mowatt,
Echospace,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dawn Penn,
UT,
Inner City,
AZ,
Max Romeo,
Joe Finger,
Carl Craig,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Dave Clark Five,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Rosa Yemen,
Soul II Soul,
Dead Boys,
Soft Machine,
Basic Channel,
Tubeway Army,
Ultimate Spinach,
Avey Tare,
The Seeds,
CMW,
London Community Gospel Choir,
In Retrospect,
Curtis Mayfield,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Adolescents,
DNA,
Model 500,
Eddi Front,
Unrelated Segments,
Scientists,
Bauhaus,
Prince Buster,
Zapp,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Parry Music,
The Offenders,
This Heat,
Cal Tjader,
48th St. Collective,
Maleditus Sound,
The Smoke,
Andrew Hill,
The Doors,
Amazonics,
PIL,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Essential Logic,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Mojo Men,
Young Marble Giants,
The Names,
Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel.
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.