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 Andorra and from Glasgow.
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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Grauzone. All the underground hits.
All Skarface tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantaleimon 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Letta Mbulu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
The Knickerbockers,
Excepter,
The Gun Club,
Roxy Music,
The Gories,
Sight & Sound,
Reagan Youth,
Cybotron,
Rosa Yemen,
The Happenings,
Eve St. Jones,
New Order,
Boogie Down Productions,
ABBA,
Quantec,
Agent Orange,
JFA,
Mr. Review,
Crooked Eye,
Ten City,
Joyce Sims,
Kool Moe Dee,
Babytalk,
The Last Poets,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Velvet Underground,
Leonard Cohen,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Alarm Clocks,
Moebius,
AZ,
Clear Light,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Count Five,
Panda Bear,
Parry Music,
Peter and Kerry,
Magma,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Gladiators,
Pantytec,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Inner City,
Dead Boys,
Sister Nancy,
H. Thieme,
Chris & Cosey,
Sparks,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Invisible,
T.S.O.L.,
Wasted Youth,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Accadde A,
Ituana,
The Fortunes,
Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes.
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.