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 Thailand and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 guitar 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 Pagans to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 A Certain Ratio. All the underground hits.
All Moss Icon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Byron Stingily record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Smog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Chris & Cosey,
T. Rex,
Bobby Womack,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Alice Coltrane,
New Order,
The Gap Band,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Dirtbombs,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Alton Ellis,
Jacob Miller,
The Divine Comedy,
Marine Girls,
Graham Central Station,
Bauhaus,
Masters at Work,
The Gladiators,
Traffic Nightmare,
Ronan,
the Swans,
The Wake,
Ultimate Spinach,
Moss Icon,
The Cure,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Angry Samoans,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Eden Ahbez,
Idris Muhammad,
The Slackers,
Circle Jerks,
Rekid,
In Retrospect,
The Last Poets,
Rakim,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Tim Buckley,
The New Christs,
Dark Day,
ABBA,
Easy Going,
Sound Behaviour,
Lower 48,
Sun City Girls,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Pagans,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Schoolly D,
Public Enemy,
Fat Boys,
Rod Modell,
La Düsseldorf,
Curtis Mayfield,
Excepter,
Flash Fearless,
The Detroit Cobras,
Outsiders,
Pere Ubu,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants.
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.