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 Tanzania and from London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Fela Kuti to the jazz 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers Ubiquity tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Teenage Jesus and the Jerks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a 8 Eyed Spy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Das Ding,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Rapeman,
Oneida,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Supertramp,
Minny Pops,
China Crisis,
The Sonics,
cv313,
Carl Craig,
Bobby Womack,
The Index,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lightning Bolt,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Searchers,
Todd Rundgren,
Icehouse,
Von Mondo,
Josef K,
R.M.O.,
Alton Ellis,
B.T. Express,
Vladislav Delay,
The Gap Band,
Scrapy,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Matthew Halsall,
Laurel Aitken,
Graham Central Station,
Matthew Bourne,
Harmonia,
Dorothy Ashby,
Pole,
Aaron Thompson,
La Düsseldorf,
The Misunderstood,
The Walker Brothers,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Can,
Sixth Finger,
The Modern Lovers,
John Coltrane,
The Seeds,
Suicide,
Y Pants,
Rosa Yemen,
Sparks,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Yusef Lateef,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
ABBA,
Mr. Review,
ABC,
Bill Near,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Desert Stars,
T.S.O.L.,
Anthony Braxton,
Lou Reed,
Heaven 17,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.