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 Maldives and from Paris.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Salvador.
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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Bootsy's Rubber Band to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arthur Verocai 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Agent Orange record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rosa Yemen,
Qualms,
Sparks,
The Music Machine,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rhythm & Sound,
Theoretical Girls,
Alton Ellis,
KRS-One,
Drexciya,
UT,
Colin Newman,
The Grass Roots,
Interpol,
Popol Vuh,
The Misunderstood,
The Mummies,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Blake Baxter,
Youth Brigade,
Mad Mike,
Marc Almond,
Shuggie Otis,
Sixth Finger,
Althea and Donna,
Robert Hood,
Tom Boy,
Country Teasers,
Joe Finger,
Andrew Hill,
Girls At Our Best!,
Japan,
Kerri Chandler,
Mission of Burma,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Public Enemy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Johnny Osbourne,
Lebanon Hanover,
Essential Logic,
Rites of Spring,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Dennis Brown,
Cal Tjader,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Bauhaus,
The Flesh Eaters,
Black Moon,
Excepter,
World's Most,
Bob Dylan,
Sonny Sharrock,
Bootsy Collins,
The Beau Brummels,
Slave,
Tubeway Army,
Roy Ayers,
Ken Boothe,
Agent Orange,
The Pop Group,
The Index,
Nick Fraelich,
Q65,
Gang Green, Gang Green, Gang Green, Gang Green.
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.