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 St Kitts & Nevis 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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Crispian St. Peters to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Gang of Four. All the underground hits.
All Pantytec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Connie Case record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharoah Sanders,
Moby Grape,
Joe Finger,
Barrington Levy,
Don Cherry,
Jandek,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Kinks,
X-102,
Marine Girls,
Black Flag,
Aloha Tigers,
Connie Case,
The Black Dice,
World's Most,
Agent Orange,
The Moleskins,
Gabor Szabo,
the Germs,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
H. Thieme,
Jawbox,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Pop Group,
Howard Jones,
Skarface,
Pantaleimon,
Minny Pops,
DNA,
John Foxx,
The Durutti Column,
Soft Machine,
Mark Hollis,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Avey Tare,
Radiopuhelimet,
Rotary Connection,
Ultravox,
Sun City Girls,
Franke,
Eurythmics,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kool Moe Dee,
Donald Byrd,
Eric Dolphy,
The Sound,
Yazoo,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Cure,
The Buckinghams,
Soul Sonic Force,
Radio Birdman,
The Gap Band,
Icehouse,
The Fugs,
Suburban Knight,
Sexual Harrassment,
Moebius,
Danielle Patucci,
John Cale,
Shoche,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.