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 Zimbabwe 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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Fat Boys to the dance kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Sex Pistols. All the underground hits.
All The American Breed tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Von Mondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Basic Channel,
Technova,
MDC,
Easy Going,
Ossler,
John Foxx,
Jacob Miller,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Toasters,
Lalo Schifrin,
Mars,
the Swans,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Sonics,
Josef K,
8 Eyed Spy,
Banda Bassotti,
Dorothy Ashby,
Eric Copeland,
Sun Ra,
Yellowson,
Mad Mike,
The Cowsills,
Lakeside,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Gerry Rafferty,
Tears for Fears,
Shoche,
Sexual Harrassment,
Curtis Mayfield,
Gabor Szabo,
Nik Kershaw,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
D'Angelo,
Robert Hood,
John Coltrane,
The Gun Club,
Blossom Toes,
The Cure,
Todd Rundgren,
Scrapy,
Eddi Front,
Eric Dolphy,
Scott Walker,
The Tremeloes,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Little Man,
The Slits,
Joey Negro,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Bill Near,
Qualms,
The Names,
Tomorrow,
the Human League,
These Immortal Souls,
Stockholm Monsters,
Bronski Beat,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Pylon,
Scratch Acid,
MC5,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.