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 Suriname 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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Rotary Connection to the electroclash 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 Todd Rundgren. All the underground hits.
All the Association tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fort Wilson Riot 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Gang Dance,
Crash Course in Science,
Fluxion,
The Electric Prunes,
Ralphi Rosario,
Agent Orange,
Simply Red,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Suburban Knight,
Sarah Menescal,
Wally Richardson,
The Leaves,
Anakelly,
Rufus Thomas,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Selecter,
The Raincoats,
Yazoo,
DJ Sneak,
MC5,
T.S.O.L.,
Infiniti,
Porter Ricks,
Scion,
Althea and Donna,
John Coltrane,
Make Up,
Davy DMX,
Don Cherry,
The Knickerbockers,
Faraquet,
The Young Rascals,
Tubeway Army,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Gap Band,
Delta 5,
LL Cool J,
Rakim,
Adolescents,
Arab on Radar,
Patti Smith,
Spoonie Gee,
Barry Ungar,
Eden Ahbez,
Basic Channel,
Organ,
Groovy Waters,
Goldenarms,
Tim Buckley,
The Walker Brothers,
Ultravox,
Model 500,
Scan 7,
Ten City,
The Saints,
Q and Not U,
Warren Ellis,
Andrew Hill,
The American Breed,
Wolf Eyes,
Amazonics,
Gregory Isaacs,
Terry Callier,
The Smiths,
Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol.
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.