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 Monaco and from Delhi.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Sparks to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Gang of Four tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Au Pairs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Unwound,
Mary Jane Girls,
Hashim,
Barbara Tucker,
The Dead C,
Arcadia,
Infiniti,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Index,
Suicide,
Kool Moe Dee,
Aaron Thompson,
Johnny Clarke,
La Düsseldorf,
Flipper,
Reuben Wilson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lightning Bolt,
Massinfluence,
Moss Icon,
The Raincoats,
Country Teasers,
Liliput,
Brick,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rites of Spring,
Lindisfarne,
Ronan,
The Black Dice,
Mandrill,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Velvet Underground,
Accadde A,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Knickerbockers,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Scratch Acid,
Thompson Twins,
Warren Ellis,
the Human League,
Cecil Taylor,
Nik Kershaw,
Gregory Isaacs,
Arab on Radar,
The Dirtbombs,
Skriet,
Minutemen,
DNA,
the Swans,
JFA,
Gil Scott Heron,
Eddi Front,
James White and The Blacks,
U.S. Maple,
Qualms,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sight & Sound,
Cheater Slicks,
DJ Style, DJ Style, DJ Style, DJ Style.
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.