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 Bangladesh and from Seoul.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 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 Curtis Mayfield to the punk 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 Brick. All the underground hits.
All Bizarre Inc. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DJ Sneak record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ten City record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kool Moe Dee,
Theoretical Girls,
The Selecter,
Cymande,
Whodini,
Minnie Riperton,
Blossom Toes,
The Moleskins,
The Martian,
The Mummies,
Yellowson,
Interpol,
Moby Grape,
The Kinks,
Lyres,
Gabor Szabo,
Infiniti,
Bobby Byrd,
Intrusion,
Janne Schatter,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ken Boothe,
Second Layer,
Jeff Mills,
Barry Ungar,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Girls At Our Best!,
Leonard Cohen,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Motorama,
Jacques Brel,
Grauzone,
Television Personalities,
Suicide,
The Skatalites,
The Gladiators,
The Names,
Pierre Henry,
Talk Talk,
Rufus Thomas,
Black Pus,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Music Machine,
A Certain Ratio,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Sugar Minott,
Joe Finger,
Mad Mike,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Albert Ayler,
The Pop Group,
The Young Rascals,
Lindisfarne,
Slick Rick,
Pharoah Sanders,
Darondo,
the Swans,
Roger Hodgson,
Ohio Players, Ohio Players, Ohio Players, Ohio Players.
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.