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 Uganda and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Rufus Thomas to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Monochrome Set. All the underground hits.
All Peter & Gordon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Technova record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 theremin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tom Boy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Reuben Wilson,
Adolescents,
Eli Mardock,
Slave,
The Alarm Clocks,
Moby Grape,
Minutemen,
Freddie Wadling,
Avey Tare,
Johnny Clarke,
Tubeway Army,
Malaria!,
Accadde A,
X-101,
The Wake,
Y Pants,
the Sonics,
Ponytail,
Isaac Hayes,
Kayak,
Black Sheep,
The Fortunes,
Warsaw,
Vainqueur,
Underground Resistance,
Albert Ayler,
H. Thieme,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ultimate Spinach,
Brass Construction,
Graham Central Station,
Tears for Fears,
Marc Almond,
Gang Starr,
The Five Americans,
Cluster,
Carl Craig,
Girls At Our Best!,
the Bar-Kays,
Drexciya,
Quantec,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ronnie Foster,
Q and Not U,
Leonard Cohen,
Main Source,
Prince Buster,
Henry Cow,
MC5,
Fat Boys,
The Gun Club,
Maleditus Sound,
Faraquet,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Piero Umiliani,
Pantaleimon,
Jacques Brel,
Byron Stingily,
The J.B.'s,
Popol Vuh,
World's Most,
This Heat,
Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman.
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.