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 Kenya and from Madrid.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Ponytail to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Skarface. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Theoretical Girls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Byron Stingily record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Carl Craig,
Shuggie Otis,
Patti Smith,
Agitation Free,
Grey Daturas,
Harpers Bizarre,
June of 44,
Marmalade,
The Mojo Men,
LL Cool J,
Hot Snakes,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Trojans,
Barbara Tucker,
Amon Düül,
Marcia Griffiths,
Albert Ayler,
Ituana,
Scion,
Jacob Miller,
Monolake,
Crash Course in Science,
Anthony Braxton,
Charles Mingus,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Babytalk,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Young Marble Giants,
Q and Not U,
Lebanon Hanover,
Crooked Eye,
The Fugs,
Monks,
The Star Department,
Alice Coltrane,
The Barracudas,
The Zeros,
China Crisis,
Scrapy,
Schoolly D,
Sparks,
The Walker Brothers,
X-Ray Spex,
Moby Grape,
Scott Walker,
Lucky Dragons,
One Last Wish,
Sam Rivers,
Khruangbin,
The Neon Judgement,
The Moody Blues,
Unrelated Segments,
T.S.O.L.,
Terrestrial Tones,
Eli Mardock,
Hardrive,
Section 25,
Aaron Thompson,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Modern Lovers,
EPMD,
Banda Bassotti, Banda Bassotti, Banda Bassotti, Banda Bassotti.
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.