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 Micronesia and from Johannesburg.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 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 Ultravox to the electroclash 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 Brick. All the underground hits.
All Freddie Wadling tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick May 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lower 48 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Coltrane,
Lee Hazlewood,
Talk Talk,
Patti Smith,
Soulsonic Force,
Girls At Our Best!,
Unrelated Segments,
The Young Rascals,
Kevin Saunderson,
Negative Approach,
Lucky Dragons,
Throbbing Gristle,
ABC,
Ronan,
Kenny Larkin,
The Slackers,
the Soft Cell,
Junior Murvin,
OOIOO,
Joensuu 1685,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Arab on Radar,
Dennis Brown,
Ituana,
The Dead C,
Wally Richardson,
Chris & Cosey,
Subhumans,
The Mummies,
The Barracudas,
Steve Hackett,
H. Thieme,
Dark Day,
James White and The Blacks,
Connie Case,
48th St. Collective,
Infiniti,
Eve St. Jones,
Oblivians,
The Human League,
Pet Shop Boys,
Jeff Mills,
Desert Stars,
Idris Muhammad,
Cal Tjader,
Chrome,
Bluetip,
Ornette Coleman,
Robert Görl,
Groovy Waters,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Nick Fraelich,
Livin' Joy,
Brand Nubian,
Marmalade,
The Moody Blues,
The Residents,
Crime,
Hasil Adkins,
The Walker Brothers,
Magma,
In Retrospect,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Monks, The Monks, The Monks, The Monks.
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.