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 Samoa and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 arpeggiator 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 Lalo Schifrin to the punk 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 Soul II Soul. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Malaria! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 marimba and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Talk Talk,
The Walker Brothers,
The Selecter,
Joensuu 1685,
the Bar-Kays,
Yusef Lateef,
Charles Mingus,
The Black Dice,
Sun City Girls,
Main Source,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Eli Mardock,
Section 25,
Faust,
MDC,
Bad Manners,
The Techniques,
the Association,
Stetsasonic,
Blossom Toes,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Black Moon,
Connie Case,
F. McDonald,
Sight & Sound,
Japan,
John Coltrane,
Radiopuhelimet,
Eve St. Jones,
June Days,
New Order,
Patti Smith,
Colin Newman,
Smog,
David Bowie,
These Immortal Souls,
Organ,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Harpers Bizarre,
Liliput,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Saccharine Trust,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Scrapy,
The Skatalites,
Drexciya,
Rites of Spring,
Carl Craig,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Heaven 17,
Prince Buster,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Pulsallama,
The Motions,
The Young Rascals,
Peter and Kerry,
Flash Fearless,
Spoonie Gee,
a-ha,
Desert Stars,
The Cure,
Brass Construction,
The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things.
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.