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 Venezuela and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Barclay James Harvest to the disco kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Agent Orange. All the underground hits.
All Eden Ahbez tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cluster 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Shoche record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Grass Roots,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ultra Naté,
Severed Heads,
Rhythm & Sound,
Toni Rubio,
Hoover,
Tropical Tobacco,
John Coltrane,
Interpol,
Black Sheep,
Colin Newman,
Brick,
Minutemen,
Kool Moe Dee,
Arcadia,
Underground Resistance,
Rufus Thomas,
The Names,
Rotary Connection,
Technova,
Scott Walker,
L. Decosne,
Iggy Pop,
The Golliwogs,
Jeff Mills,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Barbara Tucker,
The Red Krayola,
X-101,
Soul II Soul,
The Fortunes,
Lightning Bolt,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Motions,
Ronnie Foster,
Magma,
Bush Tetras,
Joy Division,
The Misunderstood,
Stockholm Monsters,
Yusef Lateef,
Model 500,
Depeche Mode,
One Last Wish,
Cymande,
Barry Ungar,
Fatback Band,
Ponytail,
Byron Stingily,
Black Flag,
The Durutti Column,
Sound Behaviour,
Freddie Wadling,
Al Stewart,
Oneida,
David McCallum,
Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis.
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.