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 Mauritius and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the snare 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 Rapeman to the grime 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 Quantec. All the underground hits.
All Moby Grape tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Erykah Badu 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Jesper Dahlback,
Desert Stars,
The Fugs,
The Pretty Things,
Q and Not U,
The Cramps,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Boogie Down Productions,
Faraquet,
Funkadelic,
Maurizio,
Zapp,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
the Bar-Kays,
Ohio Players,
Icehouse,
The Techniques,
Television,
Audionom,
Throbbing Gristle,
Cal Tjader,
Hot Snakes,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Moody Blues,
KRS-One,
Camouflage,
Panda Bear,
Al Stewart,
The Saints,
Todd Terry,
Marvin Gaye,
Quadrant,
Wally Richardson,
Drexciya,
Dark Day,
48th St. Collective,
Arthur Verocai,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Robert Görl,
Ituana,
Alice Coltrane,
Yusef Lateef,
Essential Logic,
John Foxx,
The Skatalites,
Gil Scott Heron,
Bobby Sherman,
Dawn Penn,
Rufus Thomas,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Golliwogs,
Derrick May,
Sixth Finger,
R.M.O.,
Japan,
Ronan,
The Shadows of Knight,
Wire,
Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal.
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.