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 Belgium and from Shanghai.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Popol Vuh to the grime 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 Soft Cell. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Martian record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fuzztones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
Amon Düül II,
Alison Limerick,
DJ Style,
Connie Case,
Television,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Max Romeo,
Soulsonic Force,
Eric Copeland,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Dark Day,
Excepter,
Banda Bassotti,
The Skatalites,
Tim Buckley,
Freddie Wadling,
Sam Rivers,
Henry Cow,
Rotary Connection,
The Golliwogs,
Marine Girls,
Wire,
Simply Red,
The Knickerbockers,
Flipper,
Public Enemy,
The United States of America,
New Age Steppers,
The Kinks,
Barrington Levy,
Archie Shepp,
Brass Construction,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Mad Mike,
The Selecter,
Soft Machine,
Peter and Kerry,
Oneida,
Dorothy Ashby,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
LL Cool J,
Boogie Down Productions,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
A Certain Ratio,
Joyce Sims,
The Toasters,
Ohio Players,
Guru Guru,
Tubeway Army,
Josef K,
Jesper Dahlback,
Grey Daturas,
Fela Kuti,
Judy Mowatt,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Graham Central Station,
The Durutti Column,
Hoover,
Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster.
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.