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 Honduras and from Beijing.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Madrid.
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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 DeepChord presents Echospace to the crunk 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 Basic Channel. All the underground hits.
All Lungfish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Blackbyrds 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roy Ayers Ubiquity record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fort Wilson Riot,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Kool Moe Dee,
Nik Kershaw,
Theoretical Girls,
The Young Rascals,
Leonard Cohen,
OOIOO,
The Detroit Cobras,
Neil Young,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Sound,
The Doobie Brothers,
Alton Ellis,
Donny Hathaway,
Inner City,
Moebius,
Q65,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Monks,
Erykah Badu,
Silicon Teens,
Marcia Griffiths,
James White and The Blacks,
The Associates,
Barbara Tucker,
Yaz,
Marine Girls,
Oneida,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Hot Snakes,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lalann,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Alphaville,
Flipper,
Sun Ra,
Animal Collective,
Graham Central Station,
Pole,
Peter & Gordon,
The Fire Engines,
Ponytail,
T. Rex,
Rufus Thomas,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Raincoats,
Niagra,
The Zeros,
Glambeats Corp.,
In Retrospect,
Terry Callier,
Tropical Tobacco,
Thompson Twins,
Slave,
Piero Umiliani,
Fela Kuti,
The J.B.'s,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Warsaw,
David Axelrod,
Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane.
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.