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 Denmark and from Shanghai.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Eric B and Rakim to the disco 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 The Monochrome Set. All the underground hits.
All The Flesh Eaters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sister Nancy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Brand Nubian,
One Last Wish,
Banda Bassotti,
Model 500,
The Gap Band,
Fela Kuti,
Arthur Verocai,
Joe Smooth,
Radiohead,
The Music Machine,
Todd Terry,
Unrelated Segments,
Josef K,
The Golliwogs,
Matthew Halsall,
Eddi Front,
Johnny Osbourne,
Donny Hathaway,
The Invisible,
Marine Girls,
The Dave Clark Five,
Stockholm Monsters,
Sandy B,
Warsaw,
Swell Maps,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kas Product,
Young Marble Giants,
Terrestrial Tones,
Scion,
Deepchord,
The Buckinghams,
Tears for Fears,
The Grass Roots,
Drive Like Jehu,
Wally Richardson,
Hardrive,
The Cowsills,
Ralphi Rosario,
Inner City,
AZ,
Basic Channel,
Organ,
the Normal,
Moby Grape,
Zero Boys,
Anthony Braxton,
Gil Scott Heron,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
the Germs,
Dennis Brown,
Minor Threat,
Cal Tjader,
Derrick Morgan,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
New York Dolls,
Mad Mike,
Alice Coltrane,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Wire, Wire, Wire, Wire.
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.