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 Sri Lanka and from Madrid.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Freddie Wadling to the punk 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 Scott Walker + Sunn O))). All the underground hits.
All Toni Rubio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hot Snakes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dorothy Ashby record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roy Ayers,
Soul II Soul,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Shadows of Knight,
Second Layer,
Procol Harum,
Kenny Larkin,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Massinfluence,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Animal Collective,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Blake Baxter,
The Leaves,
Idris Muhammad,
The Gun Club,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Bobby Womack,
Wings,
KRS-One,
Loose Ends,
Tres Demented,
Stetsasonic,
The Velvet Underground,
The Motions,
Q and Not U,
Flamin' Groovies,
Arcadia,
Bizarre Inc.,
Au Pairs,
The United States of America,
Rotary Connection,
Depeche Mode,
Eve St. Jones,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
the Swans,
DNA,
PIL,
Mandrill,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Searchers,
Byron Stingily,
Rites of Spring,
Sonic Youth,
The Beau Brummels,
Boredoms,
Wire,
Matthew Halsall,
Accadde A,
Carl Craig,
The Smoke,
Lyres,
Jeru the Damaja,
Pantytec,
Kerri Chandler,
Mo-Dettes,
Alton Ellis,
The J.B.'s,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Subhumans,
In Retrospect,
Sarah Menescal, Sarah Menescal, Sarah Menescal, Sarah Menescal.
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.