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 Tuvalu and from Calgary.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the organ 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 the Sonics to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Masters at Work. All the underground hits.
All Ludus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick May 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ornette Coleman,
Lindisfarne,
Maleditus Sound,
Gichy Dan,
Drexciya,
R.M.O.,
Ohio Players,
Guru Guru,
Animal Collective,
Camouflage,
The Sonics,
Audionom,
Hot Snakes,
X-Ray Spex,
Max Romeo,
Youth Brigade,
Desert Stars,
Michelle Simonal,
Warren Ellis,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Technova,
The Zeros,
Eric Copeland,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Durutti Column,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Infiniti,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Morten Harket,
Glenn Branca,
Zapp,
Dawn Penn,
Franke,
John Cale,
Sarah Menescal,
Alison Limerick,
Bobby Sherman,
Lou Reed,
The Cure,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Roxy Music,
The Gap Band,
Scratch Acid,
Pharoah Sanders,
Intrusion,
Mary Jane Girls,
Matthew Bourne,
Simply Red,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Blackbyrds,
Heaven 17,
Jeff Lynne,
Bauhaus,
ABC,
Inner City,
Jimmy McGriff,
Fluxion,
Moby Grape,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Brothers Johnson,
The Fortunes,
Electric Prunes,
The Doors,
Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry.
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.