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 Sweden and from Copenhagen.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Monks to the grime 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 Juan Atkins. All the underground hits.
All Lee Hazlewood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marine Girls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Derrick May record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pagans,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Echospace,
The Grass Roots,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Pharoah Sanders,
Byron Stingily,
Kevin Saunderson,
Babytalk,
Harry Pussy,
Bobby Womack,
John Coltrane,
Kas Product,
Man Eating Sloth,
Quantec,
Second Layer,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lou Christie,
The Flesh Eaters,
Gastr Del Sol,
Reuben Wilson,
Dual Sessions,
Stockholm Monsters,
Hoover,
The Cramps,
Ultimate Spinach,
Masters at Work,
Ralphi Rosario,
the Bar-Kays,
Aural Exciters,
X-102,
Kaleidoscope,
Eric B and Rakim,
Warren Ellis,
Tres Demented,
Kurtis Blow,
Delta 5,
Black Sheep,
Sonny Sharrock,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Procol Harum,
Letta Mbulu,
Whodini,
The Happenings,
Minutemen,
The Standells,
Juan Atkins,
Bootsy Collins,
Althea and Donna,
Suicide,
Oneida,
Pet Shop Boys,
Television,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Joyce Sims,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Barry Ungar,
The Velvet Underground,
Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield.
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.