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 Rwanda and from Woodstock.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the theremin 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 Eric B and Rakim to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All Tres Demented tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
Eric Dolphy,
Hardrive,
Althea and Donna,
Lou Christie,
Index,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Byron Stingily,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Warsaw,
Rod Modell,
Fifty Foot Hose,
A Certain Ratio,
Depeche Mode,
Icehouse,
Roxy Music,
kango's stein massive,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Grass Roots,
Little Man,
Suburban Knight,
The Slits,
Hoover,
Rotary Connection,
Negative Approach,
Pharoah Sanders,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
This Heat,
Black Moon,
The United States of America,
Scrapy,
Brand Nubian,
Babytalk,
Patti Smith,
Ultimate Spinach,
Sparks,
Khruangbin,
The Misunderstood,
The Doors,
Sex Pistols,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Cluster,
T.S.O.L.,
The Victims,
The Real Kids,
Stiv Bators,
Mantronix,
Pylon,
Model 500,
the Association,
Urselle,
June Days,
Lyres,
Can,
Roy Ayers,
Accadde A,
Alphaville,
Young Marble Giants,
Lalann,
The Fall,
Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye.
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.