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 Finland and from Stockholm.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Carl Craig to the funk 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 Jacob Miller. All the underground hits.
All Fad Gadget tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Monochrome Set record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Toasters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Boz Scaggs,
Brothers Johnson,
Henry Cow,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Animal Collective,
Half Japanese,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Slits,
Nils Olav,
The Motions,
Chris Corsano,
Popol Vuh,
Siglo XX,
Donald Byrd,
Camberwell Now,
The Zeros,
The Modern Lovers,
Agitation Free,
ABBA,
Bill Near,
Gang Green,
Angry Samoans,
Lower 48,
Minnie Riperton,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Liliput,
The Litter,
Deadbeat,
Little Man,
48th St. Collective,
Kaleidoscope,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
New York Dolls,
DJ Style,
Oneida,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Slackers,
The Golliwogs,
Bobby Womack,
Frankie Knuckles,
Theoretical Girls,
Los Fastidios,
Mantronix,
Rapeman,
Unrelated Segments,
Peter & Gordon,
Duran Duran,
The Wake,
Technova,
The Dead C,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Neu!,
The Happenings,
Warren Ellis,
Can,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Knickerbockers,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Ornette Coleman,
Underground Resistance,
Mr. Review,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.