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 Montenegro and from Jakarta.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ralphi Rosario to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Albert Ayler. All the underground hits.
All Pantaleimon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flash Fearless record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantytec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Durutti Column,
Main Source,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Happenings,
Pere Ubu,
the Bar-Kays,
The Angels of Light,
Byron Stingily,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mandrill,
MDC,
Lalann,
Robert Hood,
La Düsseldorf,
Desert Stars,
Donald Byrd,
Cheater Slicks,
Danielle Patucci,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Evens,
Curtis Mayfield,
Ponytail,
cv313,
Fela Kuti,
The Raincoats,
Frankie Knuckles,
Patti Smith,
The Shadows of Knight,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Alice Coltrane,
Sight & Sound,
The Mummies,
H. Thieme,
Judy Mowatt,
Lee Hazlewood,
Lucky Dragons,
Cecil Taylor,
Q65,
Q and Not U,
Big Daddy Kane,
Ice-T,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Babytalk,
Yazoo,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Pylon,
Black Pus,
Livin' Joy,
Marvin Gaye,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Fad Gadget,
The Fall,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Zeros,
Thee Headcoats,
Rakim,
The Martian,
Junior Murvin,
The Knickerbockers,
Rotary Connection,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Busters,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.