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 Tonga and from Shanghai.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Calgary.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the marimba 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 Rufus Thomas to the punk 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 Aloha Tigers. All the underground hits.
All Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Trumans Water 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a La Düsseldorf record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Sheep,
Lou Reed,
Brick,
Anthony Braxton,
The Velvet Underground,
Soft Machine,
Yaz,
The Wake,
Sister Nancy,
Rufus Thomas,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Barrington Levy,
Motorama,
Alton Ellis,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Little Man,
Morten Harket,
Youth Brigade,
The Angels of Light,
Deepchord,
the Human League,
Smog,
Sun Ra,
Groovy Waters,
Ultravox,
The Buckinghams,
Eli Mardock,
Electric Prunes,
Wasted Youth,
Wolf Eyes,
Tommy Roe,
Amazonics,
DJ Style,
Country Teasers,
PIL,
Jeff Lynne,
Brothers Johnson,
Section 25,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Last Poets,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
CMW,
Royal Trux,
The Martian,
The Searchers,
Radiohead,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Eurythmics,
Bobby Sherman,
Derrick May,
the Germs,
The Remains,
The Names,
10cc,
The Invisible,
Chris Corsano,
Warsaw,
The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood.
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.