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 East Timor and from Tokyo.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Public Enemy to the disco 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 Lebanon Hanover. All the underground hits.
All Alton Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bronski Beat 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharoah Sanders,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bauhaus,
Joy Division,
Robert Görl,
Lebanon Hanover,
Section 25,
Malaria!,
Prince Buster,
It's A Beautiful Day,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Organ,
Flash Fearless,
Lakeside,
Camouflage,
Pet Shop Boys,
Yazoo,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Monks,
Schoolly D,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Kenny Larkin,
Swans,
Suicide,
Accadde A,
Hot Snakes,
Sun Ra,
Albert Ayler,
The Last Poets,
New York Dolls,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Knickerbockers,
Aural Exciters,
Barbara Tucker,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Terrestrial Tones,
Aloha Tigers,
Iggy Pop,
Cameo,
X-102,
Man Eating Sloth,
MC5,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Connie Case,
The Litter,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Lou Christie,
LL Cool J,
Patti Smith,
Kurtis Blow,
Darondo,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The J.B.'s,
Oneida,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Dave Gahan,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Buckinghams,
Urselle,
Television,
Technova,
Tom Boy,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.