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 Palau and from Sao Paulo.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Dorothy Ashby to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Divine Comedy. All the underground hits.
All June of 44 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Vogues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Blues Magoos,
Motorama,
Masters at Work,
Adolescents,
Basic Channel,
Scott Walker,
The Happenings,
Supertramp,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Radiohead,
Fad Gadget,
Gang Starr,
Das Ding,
Aaron Thompson,
The Sound,
Cybotron,
Duran Duran,
Bizarre Inc.,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Star Department,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
David Axelrod,
The Beau Brummels,
The Searchers,
the Bar-Kays,
Sugar Minott,
Eric B and Rakim,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Black Sheep,
Alice Coltrane,
Janne Schatter,
F. McDonald,
Dave Gahan,
Tom Boy,
Rapeman,
Con Funk Shun,
Marcia Griffiths,
DNA,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Y Pants,
Skaos,
The Buckinghams,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Last Poets,
Jandek,
Chrome,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sarah Menescal,
Ultravox,
Khruangbin,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Metal Thangz,
The Zeros,
Albert Ayler,
Groovy Waters,
Section 25,
Flamin' Groovies,
Buzzcocks,
Tres Demented,
The Fire Engines,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues.
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.