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 Namibia and from Toronto.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Dawn Penn to the rock 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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Dennis Brown tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Grass Roots,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Brass Construction,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Siglo XX,
Electric Prunes,
The Last Poets,
Drexciya,
Mark Hollis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Kevin Saunderson,
Jeru the Damaja,
X-101,
Can,
Derrick May,
The Beau Brummels,
New Order,
Public Enemy,
Eric Dolphy,
Infiniti,
the Fania All-Stars,
These Immortal Souls,
The Shadows of Knight,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Maleditus Sound,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Japan,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Minnie Riperton,
Surgeon,
The Young Rascals,
Lakeside,
Little Man,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Cramps,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
R.M.O.,
London Community Gospel Choir,
New Age Steppers,
Sun City Girls,
Man Parrish,
Susan Cadogan,
Iggy Pop,
Monolake,
Roxy Music,
Black Moon,
Tom Boy,
Ultra Naté,
Tubeway Army,
Joey Negro,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Shuggie Otis,
Eyeless In Gaza,
D'Angelo,
The Doobie Brothers,
David Axelrod,
Arcadia,
Colin Newman,
Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell.
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.