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 Guyana and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet 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 Hoover to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Pagans. All the underground hits.
All a-ha tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sun Ra Arkestra 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Starr record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Warsaw,
ABC,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Human League,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Vainqueur,
The Wake,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Dave Gahan,
Avey Tare,
FM Einheit,
Eden Ahbez,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Cybotron,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Dennis Brown,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
the Sonics,
Kenny Larkin,
Nils Olav,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Severed Heads,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Black Sheep,
Funky Four + One,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Danielle Patucci,
Barclay James Harvest,
Ultimate Spinach,
Byron Stingily,
The Victims,
Archie Shepp,
Peter & Gordon,
Laurel Aitken,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Slave,
Motorama,
Fugazi,
Boogie Down Productions,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Gang of Four,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Five Americans,
Loose Ends,
Au Pairs,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Red Krayola,
The Durutti Column,
Todd Terry,
Morten Harket,
Nik Kershaw,
The Names,
Moby Grape,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Little Man,
E-Dancer,
Josef K,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.