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 Syria and from Hong Kong.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Piero Umiliani to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 OOIOO. All the underground hits.
All Grauzone tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Eating Sloth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soul II Soul record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Animal Collective,
Black Moon,
Eve St. Jones,
Eden Ahbez,
Godley & Creme,
John Coltrane,
Oneida,
Pantytec,
Lee Hazlewood,
John Cale,
Laurel Aitken,
Country Teasers,
Todd Rundgren,
Agent Orange,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Desert Stars,
Babytalk,
Absolute Body Control,
Can,
Boz Scaggs,
Nick Fraelich,
Skriet,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Spandau Ballet,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
New Order,
Intrusion,
The Young Rascals,
Grandmaster Flash,
Panda Bear,
Juan Atkins,
Fatback Band,
Bobby Byrd,
John Foxx,
Erasure,
Terrestrial Tones,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Wake,
The Invisible,
Swans,
Jimmy McGriff,
Essential Logic,
Index,
Eric Copeland,
Boredoms,
The Flesh Eaters,
Soft Machine,
La Düsseldorf,
Morten Harket,
Heaven 17,
Pylon,
Infiniti,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Pretty Things,
The Human League,
Idris Muhammad,
Marine Girls,
Leonard Cohen,
Swell Maps,
Buzzcocks,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Joe Finger,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.