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 Haiti and from Winnipeg.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Andrew Hill to the punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 London Community Gospel Choir. All the underground hits.
All Electric Prunes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dennis Brown record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 chamberlin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonic Youth,
Charles Mingus,
Suburban Knight,
Can,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Minnie Riperton,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Neil Young,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Bronski Beat,
The Associates,
A Certain Ratio,
Pere Ubu,
Siglo XX,
Circle Jerks,
Malaria!,
The Last Poets,
The Monochrome Set,
Sparks,
the Sonics,
X-101,
Sound Behaviour,
Echospace,
Animal Collective,
Pantaleimon,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Reuben Wilson,
Guru Guru,
Bill Wells,
Robert Görl,
Eric Copeland,
Warsaw,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Tubeway Army,
The Motions,
Average White Band,
Deadbeat,
Zapp,
Fear,
Blossom Toes,
Soulsonic Force,
The Fugs,
Whodini,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Ken Boothe,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Moleskins,
Lou Christie,
Tom Boy,
Boredoms,
Ultravox,
U.S. Maple,
Skriet,
The Tremeloes,
Bootsy Collins,
Moss Icon,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Wasted Youth,
Agent Orange,
Mr. Review,
DNA,
Bobby Sherman,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.