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 Armenia and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Salvador.
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 güiro 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 Pylon to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Golliwogs. All the underground hits.
All Heaven 17 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kool G Rap & DJ Polo 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scientists,
Idris Muhammad,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Robert Hood,
Johnny Clarke,
Alison Limerick,
The Smoke,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Kurtis Blow,
Curtis Mayfield,
Suburban Knight,
Peter & Gordon,
Max Romeo,
Anthony Braxton,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Brothers Johnson,
Minutemen,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Dave Clark Five,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Soft Machine,
Neil Young,
The Buckinghams,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Kerrie Biddell,
Boogie Down Productions,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Davy DMX,
The Standells,
Kenny Larkin,
The Star Department,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Dirtbombs,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Jawbox,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Seeds,
John Foxx,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Severed Heads,
Arcadia,
Boz Scaggs,
Japan,
The Saints,
The Gun Club,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Modern Lovers,
The Index,
Barrington Levy,
Sister Nancy,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Lyres,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Jacques Brel,
Stereo Dub,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Guru Guru,
Electric Prunes,
Porter Ricks,
Juan Atkins,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.