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 Mauritania and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 theremin 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 Dorothy Ashby to the rock 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 Clear Light. All the underground hits.
All Rapeman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fat Boys record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 mellotron and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a KRS-One record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Wire,
Lakeside,
Rhythm & Sound,
Supertramp,
Joensuu 1685,
Moby Grape,
F. McDonald,
Charles Mingus,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Radiohead,
Stetsasonic,
AZ,
LL Cool J,
Young Marble Giants,
Section 25,
JFA,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Cymande,
Chrome,
Technova,
One Last Wish,
Fluxion,
The Fuzztones,
EPMD,
The Slackers,
X-Ray Spex,
The Pop Group,
Maleditus Sound,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Archie Shepp,
Soft Machine,
Skarface,
Max Romeo,
Deepchord,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lindisfarne,
Mission of Burma,
The Litter,
Michelle Simonal,
Buzzcocks,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sonny Sharrock,
Bill Wells,
The Buckinghams,
The Zeros,
Rites of Spring,
Tubeway Army,
Scrapy,
Swell Maps,
Black Sheep,
Tommy Roe,
Slick Rick,
Nirvana,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
PIL, PIL, PIL, PIL.
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.