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 Seoul.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Swans. All the underground hits.
All Drexciya tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nas 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rhythm & Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Alphaville,
Godley & Creme,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Golliwogs,
Peter & Gordon,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Traffic Nightmare,
Glenn Branca,
the Human League,
Patti Smith,
Altered Images,
Shuggie Otis,
Sun City Girls,
The Cure,
The Toasters,
Ice-T,
Neu!,
Half Japanese,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gang Gang Dance,
Circle Jerks,
The Fire Engines,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Wolf Eyes,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Hashim,
Camouflage,
The Gories,
Freddie Wadling,
Man Eating Sloth,
Section 25,
The Angels of Light,
Simply Red,
Ultimate Spinach,
Technova,
Tommy Roe,
The Knickerbockers,
F. McDonald,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Pop Group,
La Düsseldorf,
Sight & Sound,
Joey Negro,
Rhythm & Sound,
Todd Terry,
John Holt,
Pharoah Sanders,
Mr. Review,
Radio Birdman,
Monks,
Deadbeat,
Pantytec,
The Velvet Underground,
Subhumans,
Brass Construction,
Funky Four + One,
The Human League,
Suburban Knight,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges.
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.