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 Niger and from Tehran.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 chamberlin 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 Duran Duran to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Lucky Dragons. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every This Heat 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cecil Taylor,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Don Cherry,
F. McDonald,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Chrome,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Au Pairs,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
the Soft Cell,
Rufus Thomas,
The Offenders,
Robert Görl,
The Angels of Light,
the Human League,
Harmonia,
Jerry's Kids,
The Fuzztones,
Smog,
Minor Threat,
Lou Reed,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Henry Cow,
The Neon Judgement,
Joey Negro,
the Normal,
Slick Rick,
The Remains,
The Electric Prunes,
The Mojo Men,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
John Lydon,
Buzzcocks,
Warren Ellis,
Spandau Ballet,
Oneida,
The Dead C,
KRS-One,
The Wake,
Andrew Hill,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Shuggie Otis,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Barrington Levy,
Surgeon,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Japan,
Warsaw,
LL Cool J,
The Five Americans,
The Sound,
the Bar-Kays,
The United States of America,
The Skatalites,
Leonard Cohen,
Cymande,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Althea and Donna,
Bob Dylan,
Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5.
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.