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 Togo and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 Jesper Dahlbäck to the dance 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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All The Dirtbombs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lizzy Mercier Descloux 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rosa Yemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wally Richardson,
Isaac Hayes,
Johnny Osbourne,
Big Daddy Kane,
Kerri Chandler,
Whodini,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Los Fastidios,
Oblivians,
Sex Pistols,
Nas,
Essential Logic,
Peter & Gordon,
Bronski Beat,
Todd Terry,
Al Stewart,
AZ,
Fela Kuti,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pole,
Unwound,
Malaria!,
Scion,
La Düsseldorf,
Bad Manners,
T. Rex,
Jacob Miller,
the Sonics,
Wire,
Cecil Taylor,
Oneida,
PIL,
Niagra,
Dennis Brown,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Vogues,
Minnie Riperton,
Fatback Band,
Organ,
Sight & Sound,
Easy Going,
Piero Umiliani,
Crispy Ambulance,
Moby Grape,
Sarah Menescal,
Jeru the Damaja,
Davy DMX,
Cal Tjader,
Swell Maps,
Crime,
Leonard Cohen,
MDC,
Alton Ellis,
In Retrospect,
Girls At Our Best!,
Y Pants,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Severed Heads,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Amon Düül,
The Monks,
The Monochrome Set,
Terry Callier,
CMW, CMW, CMW, CMW.
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.