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 Serbia and from Paris.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 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 Silicon Teens to the disco kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Trojans. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeru the Damaja record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sandy B 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?
Anthony Braxton,
FM Einheit,
The Monks,
Theoretical Girls,
the Human League,
Nico,
The Detroit Cobras,
Ice-T,
Sugar Minott,
Pantaleimon,
Loose Ends,
Marvin Gaye,
Susan Cadogan,
The Slits,
Ronnie Foster,
Gong,
Magma,
Ponytail,
Blossom Toes,
China Crisis,
OOIOO,
The Slackers,
Young Marble Giants,
Japan,
Sällskapet,
Electric Prunes,
John Foxx,
DNA,
Prince Buster,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Todd Rundgren,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Radiohead,
Funky Four + One,
Colin Newman,
Pet Shop Boys,
Reuben Wilson,
Popol Vuh,
Fluxion,
Scan 7,
Slick Rick,
Severed Heads,
The Durutti Column,
Minor Threat,
Rhythm & Sound,
Roxy Music,
The Mummies,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
AZ,
Erasure,
The Residents,
Smog,
ABBA,
Isaac Hayes,
The Pop Group,
The Gladiators,
Little Man,
Spoonie Gee,
Babytalk,
Tres Demented,
The Leaves,
Johnny Clarke,
Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone.
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.