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 Serbia and from Toronto.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 EPMD to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 E-Dancer. All the underground hits.
All Alice Coltrane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Susan Cadogan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a MC5 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
Trumans Water,
The Motions,
Skarface,
Thompson Twins,
June of 44,
Symarip,
Heaven 17,
The Dirtbombs,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Blake Baxter,
Ronan,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Gap Band,
The Slackers,
Magazine,
Crooked Eye,
Donald Byrd,
Arthur Verocai,
Dorothy Ashby,
U.S. Maple,
Royal Trux,
Kurtis Blow,
Scrapy,
Motorama,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
David Bowie,
Faust,
Parry Music,
Rotary Connection,
Tears for Fears,
Mo-Dettes,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Stockholm Monsters,
Loose Ends,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Joy Division,
Hasil Adkins,
Suburban Knight,
Derrick Morgan,
Marine Girls,
Joe Finger,
Soulsonic Force,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Minnie Riperton,
The Mojo Men,
Johnny Osbourne,
B.T. Express,
The Invisible,
The Modern Lovers,
Cheater Slicks,
Brick,
Outsiders,
Deadbeat,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Cowsills,
Al Stewart,
the Bar-Kays,
Arab on Radar,
Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill.
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.