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 United States and from Lyon.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the rap 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 Jacob Miller. All the underground hits.
All Donny Hathaway tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 harpsichord and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Agitation Free,
Flash Fearless,
Byron Stingily,
Big Daddy Kane,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Martian,
Marshall Jefferson,
Scott Walker,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sarah Menescal,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Fugs,
Neil Young,
The J.B.'s,
Scratch Acid,
The Residents,
48th St. Collective,
Barbara Tucker,
Donald Byrd,
The Techniques,
Moss Icon,
Lungfish,
Porter Ricks,
Matthew Halsall,
Mission of Burma,
Pharoah Sanders,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Marcia Griffiths,
Franke,
Reagan Youth,
Nik Kershaw,
June Days,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Jerry Gold Smith,
the Swans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Neon Judgement,
Andrew Hill,
These Immortal Souls,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Young Marble Giants,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Judy Mowatt,
Patti Smith,
Visage,
The Toasters,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Doors,
Scion,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Unwound,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Mojo Men,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Aural Exciters,
Saccharine Trust,
Bad Manners,
Carl Craig,
Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy.
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.