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 Djibouti and from Houston.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Mad Mike to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Birthday Party. All the underground hits.
All The Leaves tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Girls At Our Best! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Sister Nancy,
Sixth Finger,
Barbara Tucker,
Ultimate Spinach,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Minutemen,
Ice-T,
Royal Trux,
Eurythmics,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
John Holt,
Suicide,
Michelle Simonal,
La Düsseldorf,
Black Sheep,
Terry Callier,
Aural Exciters,
The Star Department,
Warren Ellis,
Unrelated Segments,
Amazonics,
Funkadelic,
the Human League,
The Gun Club,
Tom Boy,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Wasted Youth,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Shadows of Knight,
DJ Style,
Amon Düül II,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Smiths,
Josef K,
Byron Stingily,
Amon Düül,
Nik Kershaw,
Ornette Coleman,
Eden Ahbez,
Ohio Players,
Mars,
Peter & Gordon,
KRS-One,
Dark Day,
Icehouse,
Angry Samoans,
DNA,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Q and Not U,
Brass Construction,
Skaos,
Bob Dylan,
F. McDonald,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sex Pistols,
The Misunderstood,
Fatback Band,
Half Japanese,
Little Man,
Charles Mingus,
Radiohead,
The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed.
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.