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 Brunei and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the oboe 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 Sexual Harrassment to the dance 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 DJ Sneak. All the underground hits.
All DJ Style tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sarah Menescal record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Con Funk Shun record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Slave,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Smiths,
Donald Byrd,
Barclay James Harvest,
Cal Tjader,
Mad Mike,
Severed Heads,
Subhumans,
The Pretty Things,
Trumans Water,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Lyres,
Arab on Radar,
Wings,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
DNA,
Ponytail,
Matthew Bourne,
Quantec,
Morten Harket,
Blake Baxter,
Cymande,
Jeru the Damaja,
F. McDonald,
The Angels of Light,
Tom Boy,
Essential Logic,
Mo-Dettes,
Prince Buster,
H. Thieme,
8 Eyed Spy,
Mandrill,
Leonard Cohen,
Bobby Byrd,
Con Funk Shun,
Aural Exciters,
Nas,
the Sonics,
Don Cherry,
Faust,
Yaz,
Section 25,
Black Pus,
Erykah Badu,
Kenny Larkin,
Pharoah Sanders,
Howard Jones,
The Happenings,
June Days,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Marshall Jefferson,
Kayak,
Wasted Youth,
Gregory Isaacs,
Janne Schatter,
Cybotron,
the Germs,
Lucky Dragons,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Neu!,
Desert Stars,
Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry.
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.