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 South Sudan and from Delhi.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Juan Atkins to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Swans. All the underground hits.
All The Golliwogs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alton Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
The J.B.'s,
The Skatalites,
Hoover,
Maurizio,
Bob Dylan,
Barbara Tucker,
Wolf Eyes,
Hardrive,
Mad Mike,
Roger Hodgson,
Popol Vuh,
The Count Five,
Ludus,
Gastr Del Sol,
Althea and Donna,
the Swans,
Cheater Slicks,
The Zeros,
The Golliwogs,
Animal Collective,
This Heat,
Funky Four + One,
Bootsy Collins,
Radio Birdman,
Scientists,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Goldenarms,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Beau Brummels,
Sun City Girls,
Ponytail,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Black Dice,
John Holt,
Ohio Players,
The Seeds,
The Electric Prunes,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Qualms,
ABBA,
Eddi Front,
ABC,
Con Funk Shun,
Nation of Ulysses,
Al Stewart,
Mars,
Absolute Body Control,
Adolescents,
Pantytec,
Skarface,
Cal Tjader,
Public Enemy,
Susan Cadogan,
The Walker Brothers,
Cymande,
Minutemen,
June of 44,
JFA,
Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction.
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.