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 Tunisia and from Winnipeg.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 synthesizer 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 Donald Byrd to the rap 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 The United States of America. All the underground hits.
All Pharoah Sanders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Au Pairs 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Lebanon Hanover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Mad Mike,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Mighty Diamonds,
the Human League,
The Happenings,
Sister Nancy,
Sarah Menescal,
Peter & Gordon,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Kerri Chandler,
The Motions,
X-102,
Tomorrow,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Saccharine Trust,
Ponytail,
A Certain Ratio,
Henry Cow,
Negative Approach,
Aloha Tigers,
Country Teasers,
Animal Collective,
Jacques Brel,
Television Personalities,
The Selecter,
Pere Ubu,
Ronnie Foster,
Aural Exciters,
The Kinks,
Janne Schatter,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Archie Shepp,
Nas,
Public Enemy,
Slick Rick,
Swans,
The Durutti Column,
The Sonics,
The Five Americans,
The Red Krayola,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Sandy B,
Loose Ends,
Morten Harket,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Wolf Eyes,
Parry Music,
Carl Craig,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Pop Group,
Ultravox,
Con Funk Shun,
Outsiders,
Soul Sonic Force,
Crime,
The Stooges,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Skatalites,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.