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 Russia and from Seoul.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Funkadelic to the grunge 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 Mantronix. All the underground hits.
All The Black Dice tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun Ra,
Nico,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Walker Brothers,
Jacques Brel,
Depeche Mode,
Lyres,
Model 500,
The Velvet Underground,
Gang Gang Dance,
Bobby Womack,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Jeru the Damaja,
FM Einheit,
KRS-One,
Rapeman,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Smiths,
Excepter,
L. Decosne,
Funkadelic,
Scratch Acid,
Sister Nancy,
Wally Richardson,
Silicon Teens,
The Selecter,
Colin Newman,
Wolf Eyes,
Lower 48,
Echospace,
Moebius,
The Seeds,
Sarah Menescal,
Steve Hackett,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Agitation Free,
Brass Construction,
The Techniques,
Eli Mardock,
The Kinks,
Deadbeat,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Chrome,
Angry Samoans,
Alton Ellis,
Ossler,
Sex Pistols,
Jandek,
The Buckinghams,
Terry Callier,
Ronnie Foster,
Lucky Dragons,
Derrick Morgan,
Crime,
The Monochrome Set,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Gabor Szabo,
The Move,
Q and Not U,
Bobby Sherman,
the Human League,
Index, Index, Index, Index.
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.