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 Gabon and from Mexico City.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Toronto.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Morten Harket to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Trojans. All the underground hits.
All Minnie Riperton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Average White Band 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Graham Central Station record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
the Fania All-Stars,
Lightning Bolt,
Kevin Saunderson,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Blancmange,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Intrusion,
Moebius,
Neu!,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cameo,
Trumans Water,
Black Bananas,
Iggy Pop,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
June Days,
Jacob Miller,
Barry Ungar,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Surgeon,
Sam Rivers,
Letta Mbulu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Idris Muhammad,
Swell Maps,
Das Ding,
Barrington Levy,
Michelle Simonal,
Scion,
EPMD,
Patti Smith,
Quadrant,
Livin' Joy,
Joensuu 1685,
Essential Logic,
Minnie Riperton,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Mr. Review,
Vainqueur,
Motorama,
Drexciya,
Porter Ricks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
PIL,
the Germs,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Electric Prunes,
The Cramps,
Infiniti,
Technova,
Todd Rundgren,
John Holt,
Hoover,
Little Man,
Tubeway Army,
Shuggie Otis,
Fugazi,
Albert Ayler,
The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter.
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.