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 Sri Lanka and from Shanghai.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Eyeless In Gaza. All the underground hits.
All The Blackbyrds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Surgeon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rahsaan Roland Kirk record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sound,
Todd Rundgren,
Smog,
The Doors,
Arcadia,
The Beau Brummels,
Joey Negro,
Suicide,
the Swans,
Colin Newman,
The Blackbyrds,
Faraquet,
Lightning Bolt,
Aural Exciters,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
PIL,
The Sonics,
Letta Mbulu,
The Monks,
CMW,
Marine Girls,
Magma,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Inner City,
The Five Americans,
Babytalk,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Quantec,
Janne Schatter,
Average White Band,
Gang Starr,
DJ Sneak,
In Retrospect,
Black Bananas,
Erykah Badu,
Excepter,
The Move,
Jeff Lynne,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Amon Düül,
The Pretty Things,
Porter Ricks,
Procol Harum,
June Days,
Don Cherry,
The Fugs,
Minny Pops,
Mandrill,
Second Layer,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Offenders,
Marshall Jefferson,
Piero Umiliani,
Soulsonic Force,
Kas Product,
Brick,
The Associates,
Chrome,
Arthur Verocai,
Moebius,
Jandek,
Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown.
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.