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 Moldova and from Milan.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the güiro 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 Eric B and Rakim to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Blackbyrds. All the underground hits.
All Interpol tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soulsonic Force record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sex Pistols record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
Sugar Minott,
Camouflage,
Lebanon Hanover,
Bronski Beat,
Parry Music,
Brick,
UT,
Das Ding,
Neu!,
Joy Division,
The Black Dice,
The Misunderstood,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Carl Craig,
Todd Rundgren,
Sarah Menescal,
Matthew Bourne,
In Retrospect,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Ultra Naté,
The Toasters,
David Axelrod,
Ultravox,
Joe Smooth,
Erasure,
ABC,
Gang Gang Dance,
Dorothy Ashby,
Deepchord,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Shadows of Knight,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Trojans,
Visage,
Sun City Girls,
Neil Young,
Slave,
Maleditus Sound,
The Busters,
Essential Logic,
Morten Harket,
Scan 7,
Skriet,
The Blackbyrds,
The Count Five,
Ken Boothe,
Bob Dylan,
Pylon,
Marshall Jefferson,
Y Pants,
Index,
Livin' Joy,
Sister Nancy,
Gil Scott Heron,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Funkadelic,
Yusef Lateef,
Sam Rivers,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jimmy McGriff,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub.
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.