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 Cambodia 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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Sunsets and Hearts to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sight & Sound. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a One Last Wish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Negative Approach,
The J.B.'s,
Ultimate Spinach,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Davy DMX,
Blancmange,
The Evens,
Kool Moe Dee,
Masters at Work,
Liliput,
Das Ding,
Cybotron,
Scientists,
Funkadelic,
Loose Ends,
Black Moon,
Glambeats Corp.,
Brothers Johnson,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Peter and Kerry,
CMW,
Magma,
Pantytec,
The Mojo Men,
Nick Fraelich,
Junior Murvin,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Motorama,
Anakelly,
Alton Ellis,
DNA,
Anthony Braxton,
Todd Rundgren,
Joe Finger,
Janne Schatter,
Isaac Hayes,
Eden Ahbez,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Michelle Simonal,
Barbara Tucker,
In Retrospect,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Rakim,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
June of 44,
Bang On A Can,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Lalo Schifrin,
Public Image Ltd.,
Oneida,
Johnny Clarke,
Black Pus,
Q and Not U,
These Immortal Souls,
Bush Tetras,
MDC,
A Certain Ratio,
Reuben Wilson,
The Doors,
The Fuzztones,
Lakeside,
Dorothy Ashby,
Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart.
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.