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 Guinea-Bissau and from Johannesburg.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 marimba 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 The Tremeloes to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Ice-T. All the underground hits.
All The Divine Comedy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sound Behaviour record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a 8 Eyed Spy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Gang Green,
Davy DMX,
Sandy B,
Albert Ayler,
Severed Heads,
Sam Rivers,
Radiopuhelimet,
Simply Red,
The Busters,
Quadrant,
The Modern Lovers,
The Motions,
Symarip,
Traffic Nightmare,
Pagans,
Chrome,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Funky Four + One,
Cheater Slicks,
Malaria!,
Marine Girls,
A Flock of Seagulls,
F. McDonald,
Rapeman,
Shoche,
Blake Baxter,
Robert Wyatt,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Scion,
Easy Going,
World's Most,
Iggy Pop,
Fear,
Television,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Moleskins,
The Gories,
The Fire Engines,
Sound Behaviour,
Spoonie Gee,
10cc,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Searchers,
Wolf Eyes,
Surgeon,
Moebius,
Unwound,
Minny Pops,
Average White Band,
The Star Department,
Visage,
Public Enemy,
Brick,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Excepter,
La Düsseldorf,
Jawbox,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.