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 Senegal and from Winnipeg.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Johannesburg.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Boogie Down Productions to the jazz 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 The Cowsills. All the underground hits.
All Groovy Waters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bootsy Collins 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 clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Larry & the Blue Notes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dennis Brown,
Section 25,
R.M.O.,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Mojo Men,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
KRS-One,
Brick,
Ohio Players,
DNA,
Nation of Ulysses,
Alphaville,
Fluxion,
Darondo,
Rod Modell,
The Alarm Clocks,
Supertramp,
La Düsseldorf,
The Pop Group,
The Slackers,
Moebius,
Arab on Radar,
Pet Shop Boys,
Altered Images,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
World's Most,
the Sonics,
The Vogues,
Khruangbin,
Leonard Cohen,
The Flesh Eaters,
Essential Logic,
Johnny Osbourne,
Alice Coltrane,
Ronan,
Echospace,
Black Moon,
Chrome,
The Grass Roots,
Amazonics,
OOIOO,
Tres Demented,
Rites of Spring,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sparks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Arthur Verocai,
Erasure,
X-101,
The Offenders,
Sandy B,
Con Funk Shun,
Robert Görl,
Boredoms,
Goldenarms,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
John Lydon,
Prince Buster,
Rapeman,
Country Teasers,
Alton Ellis,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
David McCallum, David McCallum, David McCallum, David McCallum.
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.