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 Antigua and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Nick Fraelich to the techno 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 The Saints. All the underground hits.
All Faraquet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Black Dice record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a kango's stein massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tears for Fears,
The Mojo Men,
Funky Four + One,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Stiv Bators,
Rakim,
Johnny Osbourne,
Sonny Sharrock,
Jesper Dahlback,
Chris Corsano,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Yellowson,
Interpol,
Blancmange,
Vladislav Delay,
The Dead C,
Bronski Beat,
Ultra Naté,
The Gories,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Donny Hathaway,
Sam Rivers,
The Gun Club,
Groovy Waters,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Shoche,
Deepchord,
Shuggie Otis,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Dorothy Ashby,
Swell Maps,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Theoretical Girls,
Sound Behaviour,
Smog,
Banda Bassotti,
Kurtis Blow,
Spoonie Gee,
Lightning Bolt,
Yusef Lateef,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Invisible,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Busters,
Echospace,
Gregory Isaacs,
Siglo XX,
Anthony Braxton,
Quando Quango,
Brick,
The United States of America,
The Sonics,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Massinfluence,
Gang of Four,
The Raincoats,
This Heat,
Black Pus,
Althea and Donna,
Dark Day,
Eve St. Jones, Eve St. Jones, Eve St. Jones, Eve St. Jones.
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.