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 Cuba 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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1980 at the first Cybotron 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 John Coltrane to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Gerry Rafferty. All the underground hits.
All Fluxion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Gang Dance 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Association record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Image Ltd.,
Rotary Connection,
Gong,
Dual Sessions,
Wasted Youth,
The Grass Roots,
Lightning Bolt,
Wire,
Byron Stingily,
Mr. Review,
The Detroit Cobras,
Derrick May,
Ituana,
Moby Grape,
ABBA,
MDC,
Scan 7,
Bill Near,
The Young Rascals,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Oblivians,
Pantytec,
The Gap Band,
Mandrill,
Harpers Bizarre,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Doobie Brothers,
Marvin Gaye,
Massinfluence,
Simply Red,
The Beau Brummels,
Suicide,
Todd Terry,
the Bar-Kays,
L. Decosne,
Rakim,
X-Ray Spex,
Bobby Byrd,
the Human League,
Fugazi,
Jacob Miller,
Urselle,
The United States of America,
Sonny Sharrock,
Eli Mardock,
Erykah Badu,
Funky Four + One,
Lower 48,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Red Krayola,
Wolf Eyes,
Alphaville,
Das Ding,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Boogie Down Productions,
Clear Light,
The Walker Brothers,
the Swans,
Jeff Lynne,
Black Bananas,
Rapeman,
Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy.
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.