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 Vanuatu and from Glasgow.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Shadows of Knight to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All Brothers Johnson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Absolute Body Control record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms 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?
Ice-T,
Idris Muhammad,
The Sonics,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Essential Logic,
The Blues Magoos,
ABBA,
Zapp,
Outsiders,
Ultra Naté,
Morten Harket,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Gang Green,
Eric Copeland,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Robert Wyatt,
Jesper Dahlback,
F. McDonald,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Kenny Larkin,
the Soft Cell,
H. Thieme,
Main Source,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Pretty Things,
Oblivians,
Ituana,
The Velvet Underground,
Agitation Free,
Sound Behaviour,
Peter & Gordon,
Guru Guru,
The Wake,
Crime,
Dennis Brown,
Radiopuhelimet,
the Normal,
Darondo,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
CMW,
Crash Course in Science,
Eddi Front,
The Residents,
Interpol,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Happenings,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Archie Shepp,
Lou Christie,
The Skatalites,
the Association,
The Alarm Clocks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Arcadia,
The Neon Judgement,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rod Modell,
Kerri Chandler,
Spoonie Gee,
The Young Rascals, The Young Rascals, The Young Rascals, The Young Rascals.
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.