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 Zimbabwe and from Madrid.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Edmonton.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Letta Mbulu to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Unrelated Segments. All the underground hits.
All ABC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Swell Maps record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hoover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scrapy,
Au Pairs,
Maleditus Sound,
Archie Shepp,
Faraquet,
The Dead C,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Gichy Dan,
The Skatalites,
Altered Images,
Theoretical Girls,
Average White Band,
Grauzone,
Gastr Del Sol,
David Bowie,
Ultimate Spinach,
Flamin' Groovies,
Brothers Johnson,
Goldenarms,
John Coltrane,
Big Daddy Kane,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lightning Bolt,
Brand Nubian,
Minnie Riperton,
Bang On A Can,
Zero Boys,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Ronan,
The Blackbyrds,
Harry Pussy,
Funky Four + One,
Slick Rick,
Davy DMX,
Reagan Youth,
Y Pants,
a-ha,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Raincoats,
The Invisible,
Shuggie Otis,
Nick Fraelich,
Marine Girls,
E-Dancer,
Fatback Band,
Scratch Acid,
The Pretty Things,
Underground Resistance,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Saccharine Trust,
Moby Grape,
Radiohead,
Magma,
Lucky Dragons,
The J.B.'s,
Harmonia,
Popol Vuh,
Kurtis Blow,
Lalo Schifrin,
Byron Stingily,
Blake Baxter,
D'Angelo,
In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect.
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.