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 Somalia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 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 Tim Buckley to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Gories. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Kinks 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Minnie Riperton record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
Loose Ends,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Blackbyrds,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Monochrome Set,
The Cure,
Boz Scaggs,
The Alarm Clocks,
Glenn Branca,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Buzzcocks,
L. Decosne,
Model 500,
Scrapy,
Franke,
The Gories,
Rites of Spring,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bizarre Inc.,
Matthew Bourne,
The Durutti Column,
Avey Tare,
X-101,
The Buckinghams,
Anthony Braxton,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Cowsills,
Lalo Schifrin,
Panda Bear,
Maleditus Sound,
the Swans,
The Gap Band,
Altered Images,
Howard Jones,
Fear,
Alison Limerick,
Los Fastidios,
8 Eyed Spy,
Eric B and Rakim,
Kurtis Blow,
Guru Guru,
Moss Icon,
Girls At Our Best!,
One Last Wish,
Marmalade,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Kinks,
Gang Gang Dance,
David Bowie,
Delon & Dalcan,
Severed Heads,
Gang Green,
Bob Dylan,
T.S.O.L.,
Erasure,
The Fire Engines,
Spoonie Gee,
James White and The Blacks,
Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers.
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.