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 Malawi and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Bobby Byrd to the dance 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 The Smoke. All the underground hits.
All Traffic Nightmare tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Animal Collective record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dawn Penn,
Funky Four + One,
Lindisfarne,
Shuggie Otis,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Shoche,
Chrome,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Hoover,
Drive Like Jehu,
Cecil Taylor,
Qualms,
Yaz,
Fatback Band,
Piero Umiliani,
Sam Rivers,
Toni Rubio,
Eric Copeland,
Black Moon,
Sex Pistols,
The Vogues,
Henry Cow,
Negative Approach,
Archie Shepp,
Babytalk,
Quadrant,
John Holt,
Pulsallama,
The Electric Prunes,
Rufus Thomas,
Echospace,
Robert Wyatt,
Sight & Sound,
Main Source,
Quando Quango,
Marmalade,
Pantytec,
Von Mondo,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Section 25,
Patti Smith,
Inner City,
K-Klass,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Hasil Adkins,
Delta 5,
Nas,
Kenny Larkin,
Todd Rundgren,
T.S.O.L.,
The Fire Engines,
Mark Hollis,
The New Christs,
Flipper,
Cal Tjader,
Ornette Coleman,
The United States of America,
The Move,
48th St. Collective,
the Fania All-Stars,
PIL,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.