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 New York.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Mexico City.
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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the guitar 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 Ultravox to the rock 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 Fort Wilson Riot. All the underground hits.
All The Busters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stockholm Monsters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Smog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
Rufus Thomas,
Nils Olav,
Banda Bassotti,
The Mummies,
Young Marble Giants,
Piero Umiliani,
Moebius,
The Gun Club,
Lyres,
Bill Wells,
Blancmange,
Joey Negro,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
John Coltrane,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rotary Connection,
The Smoke,
Aloha Tigers,
Severed Heads,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
the Slits,
Joe Smooth,
Big Daddy Kane,
Nation of Ulysses,
Bad Manners,
Henry Cow,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Dave Gahan,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Arab on Radar,
Joyce Sims,
Sight & Sound,
Erasure,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Hoover,
Absolute Body Control,
Flamin' Groovies,
Yusef Lateef,
L. Decosne,
Delta 5,
David Axelrod,
Michelle Simonal,
Charles Mingus,
Surgeon,
Alison Limerick,
Con Funk Shun,
The Martian,
Wally Richardson,
Bang On A Can,
Swans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Smiths,
Bob Dylan,
Nick Fraelich,
Fluxion,
Grandmaster Flash,
Minnie Riperton,
Aswad,
The Techniques,
New York Dolls,
Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction.
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.