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 Morocco and from Sao Paulo.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 synthesizer 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 Erykah Badu to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Chrome. All the underground hits.
All Gong tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yusef Lateef record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lou Reed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
Nirvana,
Supertramp,
Eden Ahbez,
Patti Smith,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Yazoo,
The Cowsills,
Ronan,
Barry Ungar,
Rod Modell,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Amon Düül,
The Count Five,
Erykah Badu,
UT,
The Alarm Clocks,
F. McDonald,
Underground Resistance,
Ornette Coleman,
Suicide,
KRS-One,
Depeche Mode,
X-Ray Spex,
Panda Bear,
Thompson Twins,
Quando Quango,
the Germs,
Bootsy Collins,
Tom Boy,
Sex Pistols,
The Mummies,
Tomorrow,
E-Dancer,
Average White Band,
Junior Murvin,
Jeff Lynne,
New Order,
Fear,
The Offenders,
Robert Hood,
The Stooges,
John Holt,
Grandmaster Flash,
Scott Walker,
Warren Ellis,
The Smoke,
Rotary Connection,
Ponytail,
Warsaw,
Stockholm Monsters,
Aswad,
Wings,
Black Flag,
Soul II Soul,
Crispian St. Peters,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lyres,
John Foxx,
Blossom Toes,
Slave,
Procol Harum,
Oneida, Oneida, Oneida, Oneida.
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.