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 Samoa and from Accra.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 A Flock of Seagulls to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All Pagans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DNA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sight & Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Walker Brothers,
The Barracudas,
Soulsonic Force,
Kenny Larkin,
the Normal,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Arthur Verocai,
Sister Nancy,
Fela Kuti,
Depeche Mode,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Derrick May,
The Associates,
Piero Umiliani,
8 Eyed Spy,
David McCallum,
New Order,
Colin Newman,
Blancmange,
Rapeman,
PIL,
The Toasters,
The Tremeloes,
Eden Ahbez,
Desert Stars,
Johnny Clarke,
Ultimate Spinach,
Warren Ellis,
Freddie Wadling,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Moleskins,
The Last Poets,
Rites of Spring,
Japan,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Modern Lovers,
Josef K,
Ohio Players,
Quando Quango,
Lee Hazlewood,
Bauhaus,
Skriet,
Arab on Radar,
The Names,
The Sonics,
Organ,
Derrick Morgan,
the Sonics,
Boogie Down Productions,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Camouflage,
Matthew Halsall,
The Skatalites,
ABBA,
Eric Dolphy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
OOIOO,
Qualms,
Dorothy Ashby,
X-101,
Brand Nubian,
Franke, Franke, Franke, Franke.
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.