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 Mozambique and from Houston.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe 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 Malaria! to the grime 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 Mars. All the underground hits.
All The Blues Magoos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Laurel Aitken record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ajijia Myrayebe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
La Düsseldorf,
The Techniques,
Inner City,
Piero Umiliani,
Pierre Henry,
The Standells,
Kerrie Biddell,
Bluetip,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Gabor Szabo,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Suburban Knight,
Ornette Coleman,
Sun Ra,
The Victims,
LL Cool J,
Connie Case,
Marmalade,
Sight & Sound,
Letta Mbulu,
Black Pus,
E-Dancer,
Alphaville,
Matthew Bourne,
Robert Hood,
The Slits,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Scott Walker,
Skarface,
Faust,
The Vogues,
48th St. Collective,
Radio Birdman,
Unrelated Segments,
The Saints,
Steve Hackett,
Joey Negro,
Alice Coltrane,
Ultravox,
Japan,
Mission of Burma,
Ohio Players,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ossler,
Jesper Dahlback,
Black Sheep,
Jandek,
Throbbing Gristle,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
David Axelrod,
Reuben Wilson,
Bobby Sherman,
Sandy B,
The Dead C,
the Fania All-Stars,
Don Cherry,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Girls At Our Best!,
Whodini, Whodini, Whodini, Whodini.
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.