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 Cyprus and from Johannesburg.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 snare 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 Depeche Mode to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Grass Roots. All the underground hits.
All Spandau Ballet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Buckinghams record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brand Nubian record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Monks,
Derrick Morgan,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Nik Kershaw,
World's Most,
Porter Ricks,
Crime,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Whodini,
Robert Wyatt,
David McCallum,
Eurythmics,
The Toasters,
Electric Prunes,
Jesper Dahlback,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Thee Headcoats,
Mars,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Aswad,
The Star Department,
Yellowson,
Ossler,
Newcleus,
The Cowsills,
Altered Images,
The Fugs,
Minutemen,
Black Bananas,
Roxette,
Hasil Adkins,
La Düsseldorf,
Kaleidoscope,
Duran Duran,
Skaos,
Sun Ra,
Boredoms,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Velvet Underground,
Easy Going,
Thompson Twins,
Underground Resistance,
Jerry's Kids,
Kurtis Blow,
Brothers Johnson,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Jacques Brel,
Oneida,
Rapeman,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Count Five,
Mark Hollis,
Nick Fraelich,
Gang Gang Dance,
Scan 7,
Hoover,
Gil Scott Heron,
Scott Walker,
UT,
The Monochrome Set,
The Offenders,
Josef K, Josef K, Josef K, Josef K.
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.