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 Houston.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Technova to the grunge 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 Newcleus. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Womack tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bronski Beat 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rotary Connection record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Donny Hathaway,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Dead Boys,
The Flesh Eaters,
Dave Gahan,
Camouflage,
Crispian St. Peters,
Nirvana,
Country Teasers,
Nick Fraelich,
The Fuzztones,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Robert Wyatt,
The Skatalites,
Pere Ubu,
Terry Callier,
Monolake,
Trumans Water,
Interpol,
The Motions,
Blancmange,
Jacques Brel,
Mark Hollis,
Rotary Connection,
The Alarm Clocks,
X-Ray Spex,
Negative Approach,
The Blackbyrds,
The Move,
Todd Terry,
Kerri Chandler,
Thompson Twins,
Joe Smooth,
Pole,
The Happenings,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Jawbox,
Gil Scott Heron,
Mr. Review,
The Count Five,
Glenn Branca,
Yusef Lateef,
The Monochrome Set,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Electric Prunes,
Q and Not U,
Junior Murvin,
Nation of Ulysses,
Suicide,
H. Thieme,
Cecil Taylor,
Eden Ahbez,
The Dirtbombs,
Bob Dylan,
Lakeside,
Excepter,
Donald Byrd,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.