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 Vietnam and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez 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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the guitar 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 Crooked Eye to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Selecter. All the underground hits.
All Marshall Jefferson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cure,
Circle Jerks,
Porter Ricks,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Scrapy,
Gang Gang Dance,
Country Teasers,
Steve Hackett,
Bluetip,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Panda Bear,
The Blackbyrds,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Techniques,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Neu!,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Avey Tare,
Iggy Pop,
Gerry Rafferty,
Black Pus,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Warren Ellis,
Drexciya,
Max Romeo,
Index,
Altered Images,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Arab on Radar,
Barrington Levy,
the Human League,
Todd Rundgren,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Alarm Clocks,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang Starr,
Ice-T,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Agent Orange,
OOIOO,
Stetsasonic,
The Fall,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Jacques Brel,
the Swans,
Fugazi,
The Dead C,
Make Up,
The Black Dice,
Junior Murvin,
Fat Boys,
Sandy B,
The Zeros,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Peter and Kerry,
the Association,
JFA, JFA, JFA, JFA.
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.