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 Egypt 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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the 808 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 The Gories to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Real Kids. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marshall Jefferson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ice-T record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Doobie Brothers,
Joe Smooth,
Shuggie Otis,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Susan Cadogan,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Byron Stingily,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Lindisfarne,
Idris Muhammad,
Eddi Front,
The Last Poets,
Bronski Beat,
Archie Shepp,
Adolescents,
Black Moon,
Barbara Tucker,
Howard Jones,
Freddie Wadling,
Blancmange,
Liliput,
Magazine,
The Sound,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Unwound,
Reuben Wilson,
the Slits,
Blake Baxter,
Peter & Gordon,
Yusef Lateef,
Soul Sonic Force,
Lalo Schifrin,
Man Parrish,
Spoonie Gee,
Oblivians,
Drexciya,
Franke,
Todd Terry,
Rites of Spring,
E-Dancer,
The Cramps,
Lebanon Hanover,
Fatback Band,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Rhythm & Sound,
Sonny Sharrock,
Bill Wells,
Jeff Mills,
The Music Machine,
Yaz,
The Skatalites,
CMW,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Delta 5,
Von Mondo,
Siglo XX,
Michelle Simonal,
Con Funk Shun,
Ohio Players,
PIL,
Terry Callier,
Sonic Youth,
Essential Logic,
The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics.
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.