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 Sweden and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 808 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 Curtis Mayfield to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Slick Rick. All the underground hits.
All Underground Resistance tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Detroit Cobras,
Au Pairs,
This Heat,
X-101,
Kas Product,
The Star Department,
Organ,
Whodini,
Desert Stars,
Camouflage,
Porter Ricks,
Ituana,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ultra Naté,
Aswad,
The Gun Club,
Index,
a-ha,
The Five Americans,
The Dead C,
Wings,
The Victims,
Idris Muhammad,
Smog,
Slick Rick,
The Sound,
Television Personalities,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Anthony Braxton,
Reagan Youth,
The United States of America,
10cc,
The Buckinghams,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Alphaville,
Average White Band,
Eric Copeland,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Wasted Youth,
Ludus,
The Wake,
Khruangbin,
The American Breed,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Mad Mike,
Michelle Simonal,
the Sonics,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Thee Headcoats,
These Immortal Souls,
Fugazi,
K-Klass,
Essential Logic,
Cybotron,
Grandmaster Flash,
Hot Snakes,
The Gladiators,
Tomorrow,
The Seeds,
Outsiders, Outsiders, Outsiders, Outsiders.
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.