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 Guinea and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Shuggie Otis. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every One Last Wish 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
June of 44,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bush Tetras,
Bobby Sherman,
Unwound,
Blossom Toes,
Television Personalities,
Quando Quango,
Gang of Four,
Symarip,
Derrick May,
Don Cherry,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bobby Byrd,
Graham Central Station,
Leonard Cohen,
Rites of Spring,
Silicon Teens,
Absolute Body Control,
Infiniti,
The Searchers,
Laurel Aitken,
Stetsasonic,
Bob Dylan,
The Martian,
Flamin' Groovies,
Joey Negro,
Mandrill,
A Flock of Seagulls,
These Immortal Souls,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rakim,
Agitation Free,
This Heat,
The Gap Band,
Icehouse,
Skriet,
MC5,
Lebanon Hanover,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Interpol,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
L. Decosne,
Nils Olav,
Brass Construction,
the Germs,
Beasts of Bourbon,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
D'Angelo,
Gong,
Gastr Del Sol,
Neil Young,
The Standells,
Livin' Joy,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Moleskins,
Cybotron,
Siglo XX,
Deepchord,
Black Moon,
Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys.
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.