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 Guyana and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Eric B and Rakim to the punk 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 Main Source. All the underground hits.
All Blancmange tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
James White and The Blacks,
Roxy Music,
Gastr Del Sol,
Rod Modell,
The Last Poets,
Minor Threat,
The Happenings,
The Gun Club,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Rhythm & Sound,
Franke,
Ultra Naté,
Jeff Lynne,
Brothers Johnson,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Dorothy Ashby,
Amazonics,
Dual Sessions,
The Dave Clark Five,
Hasil Adkins,
Jerry's Kids,
John Holt,
DJ Sneak,
Groovy Waters,
Bobbi Humphrey,
H. Thieme,
Massinfluence,
Rekid,
The Fuzztones,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Smiths,
Funky Four + One,
Isaac Hayes,
Slave,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Mars,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Das Ding,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gil Scott Heron,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Delta 5,
Flipper,
Letta Mbulu,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
John Coltrane,
Sarah Menescal,
Talk Talk,
Camberwell Now,
Von Mondo,
Black Pus,
Masters at Work,
Connie Case,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Funkadelic,
Average White Band,
Sexual Harrassment,
Tres Demented,
Saccharine Trust,
Royal Trux,
Nils Olav, Nils Olav, Nils Olav, Nils Olav.
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.