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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Manchester.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Robert Palmer 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 Smog to the electroclash 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 the Human League. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Manfred Mann's Earth Band 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Donald Byrd,
Swans,
Davy DMX,
Rosa Yemen,
Average White Band,
Moss Icon,
David Axelrod,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Neon Judgement,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
CMW,
Silicon Teens,
The Monochrome Set,
Sight & Sound,
Skarface,
The Zeros,
Bluetip,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Alison Limerick,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Dead C,
Bad Manners,
The Slits,
Wasted Youth,
Harpers Bizarre,
MDC,
Tim Buckley,
Eve St. Jones,
Kerrie Biddell,
Deakin,
Jeff Mills,
Alphaville,
The Beau Brummels,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Stiv Bators,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
FM Einheit,
The Detroit Cobras,
Hashim,
Toni Rubio,
Amazonics,
the Human League,
The Alarm Clocks,
Lindisfarne,
Echospace,
The Fall,
The Offenders,
Black Pus,
JFA,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Drexciya,
Fatback Band,
The Young Rascals,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Nico,
Frankie Knuckles,
Intrusion,
Whodini,
Agent Orange,
Scratch Acid,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.