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 Nicaragua and from Manila.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 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 Aloha Tigers to the techno 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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Kevin Saunderson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Halsall 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Flock of Seagulls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Happenings,
Joy Division,
The Standells,
Wings,
MC5,
The American Breed,
The Knickerbockers,
Sarah Menescal,
Cymande,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Eden Ahbez,
The Kinks,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Crooked Eye,
Ken Boothe,
Donny Hathaway,
Fear,
the Human League,
The Divine Comedy,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Trojans,
Scan 7,
Jesper Dahlback,
Can,
Ornette Coleman,
Robert Görl,
Bauhaus,
Funkadelic,
Minutemen,
The United States of America,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Graham Central Station,
Skaos,
Sonny Sharrock,
Depeche Mode,
Black Sheep,
Stereo Dub,
Essential Logic,
Faust,
Quadrant,
Dorothy Ashby,
Roger Hodgson,
Organ,
Althea and Donna,
Ohio Players,
The Busters,
Bush Tetras,
The Birthday Party,
Robert Hood,
Glenn Branca,
The Gories,
Eddi Front,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Searchers,
The Stooges,
Metal Thangz,
The Names,
Matthew Halsall,
The Sound,
Juan Atkins,
Visage, Visage, Visage, Visage.
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.