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 Paraguay 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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 The Knickerbockers to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 La Düsseldorf. All the underground hits.
All Rakim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Jesus and Mary Chain record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin 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 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pylon,
Peter and Kerry,
The Raincoats,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Public Enemy,
Lungfish,
Camouflage,
Colin Newman,
Can,
the Association,
Spoonie Gee,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
John Holt,
Toni Rubio,
Wasted Youth,
Zero Boys,
Sandy B,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Names,
Grey Daturas,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
New York Dolls,
Lower 48,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Howard Jones,
Sun City Girls,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Max Romeo,
Crime,
the Slits,
Matthew Halsall,
ABC,
Rotary Connection,
Mars,
DJ Sneak,
David Axelrod,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Saints,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Albert Ayler,
Todd Rundgren,
Guru Guru,
Marcia Griffiths,
T.S.O.L.,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
L. Decosne,
48th St. Collective,
The Cure,
Icehouse,
Unwound,
Barclay James Harvest,
The United States of America,
Duran Duran,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Make Up,
China Crisis,
Matthew Bourne,
Fad Gadget,
Ken Boothe,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Laurel Aitken,
Intrusion,
Tim Buckley,
Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot.
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.