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 Ireland and from Mumbai.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Con Funk Shun 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 L. Decosne. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aloha Tigers 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brothers Johnson,
Wally Richardson,
Piero Umiliani,
Black Bananas,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Scan 7,
Sound Behaviour,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
X-101,
Faust,
The Stooges,
Nico,
The Divine Comedy,
The Modern Lovers,
Dark Day,
Sixth Finger,
Country Teasers,
Fad Gadget,
Flash Fearless,
Sister Nancy,
The Dead C,
Jeff Lynne,
Yaz,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Sonics,
Flamin' Groovies,
Eve St. Jones,
Q and Not U,
Bad Manners,
Godley & Creme,
Funky Four + One,
The Sound,
The Offenders,
The Black Dice,
Neil Young,
Harry Pussy,
Alice Coltrane,
The Smoke,
Scott Walker,
Stereo Dub,
Flipper,
Tom Boy,
Audionom,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Vladislav Delay,
Grey Daturas,
The Tremeloes,
The Human League,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Ohio Players,
The Standells,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Letta Mbulu,
Fugazi,
Black Pus,
These Immortal Souls,
Reuben Wilson,
Visage,
Bobby Sherman,
Rufus Thomas,
Adolescents,
Monolake,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.