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 Malawi and from Glasgow.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Jakarta.
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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Walker Brothers to the punk 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 Morten Harket. All the underground hits.
All Supertramp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scott Walker,
X-101,
Sun City Girls,
Public Image Ltd.,
Eric B and Rakim,
Visage,
Letta Mbulu,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Suicide,
Ituana,
In Retrospect,
The Mummies,
Tubeway Army,
Organ,
Lou Christie,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Intrusion,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Knickerbockers,
Pharoah Sanders,
Malaria!,
Ultra Naté,
Anthony Braxton,
Carl Craig,
Marine Girls,
the Germs,
a-ha,
Fad Gadget,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Alton Ellis,
Lakeside,
The Buckinghams,
The Moody Blues,
The Zeros,
Q and Not U,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Slave,
The Star Department,
Slick Rick,
Henry Cow,
Minutemen,
Johnny Osbourne,
Monolake,
Accadde A,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cal Tjader,
Can,
Scan 7,
The Martian,
Laurel Aitken,
The Pretty Things,
Gabor Szabo,
Scrapy,
The Fugs,
Drexciya,
The Fuzztones,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bobby Byrd,
Y Pants,
The Fortunes,
John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon.
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.