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 Canada 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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 Five Americans 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 Grandmaster Flash. All the underground hits.
All Radio Birdman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deakin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Inner City,
Roger Hodgson,
Sexual Harrassment,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Barracudas,
B.T. Express,
Nas,
Piero Umiliani,
Flash Fearless,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Pagans,
Yazoo,
Public Enemy,
Little Man,
Khruangbin,
Procol Harum,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Radio Birdman,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Outsiders,
Grey Daturas,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Parry Music,
Barry Ungar,
In Retrospect,
Delta 5,
John Cale,
Tomorrow,
Cluster,
Rosa Yemen,
the Swans,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bobby Womack,
Unrelated Segments,
Roxette,
Fad Gadget,
The Kinks,
Newcleus,
The Vogues,
Soft Machine,
Erykah Badu,
Robert Görl,
Delon & Dalcan,
The American Breed,
Sam Rivers,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Au Pairs,
Gil Scott Heron,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Josef K,
Black Bananas,
Bill Wells,
Scrapy,
Infiniti,
The Smoke,
Jacques Brel,
Soft Cell,
Easy Going,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.