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 Kiribati and from Jakarta.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Joyce Sims. All the underground hits.
All X-102 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Easy Going record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Funky Four + One,
Girls At Our Best!,
Iggy Pop,
Scion,
Bob Dylan,
Wolf Eyes,
Minor Threat,
Khruangbin,
One Last Wish,
Symarip,
Cybotron,
Subhumans,
Kerrie Biddell,
Fear,
Depeche Mode,
Roger Hodgson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Young Rascals,
The Slits,
Sam Rivers,
Todd Terry,
Silicon Teens,
Lou Christie,
F. McDonald,
Aural Exciters,
Ice-T,
The Monochrome Set,
The Blues Magoos,
Albert Ayler,
R.M.O.,
Lyres,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bluetip,
Rapeman,
Bad Manners,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Television,
Nik Kershaw,
The Five Americans,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Gap Band,
Darondo,
Sight & Sound,
Erasure,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Youth Brigade,
Bill Wells,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Sound,
the Germs,
Pantytec,
Boz Scaggs,
Glambeats Corp.,
Altered Images,
Big Daddy Kane,
Yazoo,
The Moody Blues,
New Age Steppers,
Mantronix,
Mars,
Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction.
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.