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 Samoa and from Shanghai.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Nas. All the underground hits.
All Tears for Fears tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Sheep record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lou Reed & Metallica record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The American Breed,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Andrew Hill,
The Smiths,
Smog,
Blossom Toes,
The Skatalites,
the Bar-Kays,
Bob Dylan,
Piero Umiliani,
Lebanon Hanover,
Kas Product,
Marine Girls,
Rites of Spring,
Loose Ends,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Radiopuhelimet,
Bill Near,
Duran Duran,
Bronski Beat,
Massinfluence,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Scientists,
The Dave Clark Five,
Liliput,
This Heat,
London Community Gospel Choir,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Swell Maps,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
FM Einheit,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Velvet Underground,
kango's stein massive,
Hot Snakes,
Cluster,
Curtis Mayfield,
Johnny Clarke,
Thompson Twins,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Five Americans,
Ultra Naté,
The Mummies,
Alphaville,
The Smoke,
Y Pants,
Pharoah Sanders,
Freddie Wadling,
Glenn Branca,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Residents,
Qualms,
The Durutti Column,
Deadbeat,
8 Eyed Spy,
Funkadelic,
Technova,
Stiv Bators,
Barbara Tucker,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.