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 Haiti and from Tehran.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Tehran.
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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Soulsonic Force to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Lebanon Hanover. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chrome record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unrelated Segments record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Ten City,
Warren Ellis,
The Stooges,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Vogues,
Max Romeo,
Gang Green,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Seeds,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Maleditus Sound,
David Bowie,
The Gladiators,
Sonny Sharrock,
AZ,
Bill Wells,
Sugar Minott,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Gang of Four,
Gang Starr,
John Holt,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Aswad,
Wings,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Excepter,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Raincoats,
Kerrie Biddell,
Roger Hodgson,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Monks,
X-101,
Mantronix,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Arcadia,
Marc Almond,
Ludus,
T. Rex,
the Germs,
Brothers Johnson,
Soulsonic Force,
DJ Style,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Matthew Halsall,
Althea and Donna,
Robert Görl,
Japan,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jeff Mills,
the Bar-Kays,
Patti Smith,
Cymande,
The Selecter,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Moebius,
Grey Daturas,
Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters.
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.