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 Iraq and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Excepter to the rock 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 Josef K. All the underground hits.
All Marine Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Young Marble Giants 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 chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba 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?
Patti Smith,
Quando Quango,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Sugar Minott,
Scrapy,
The Toasters,
Avey Tare,
The Blues Magoos,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Y Pants,
The Seeds,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Index,
Altered Images,
the Swans,
R.M.O.,
Grauzone,
The Selecter,
Eden Ahbez,
Warsaw,
Roger Hodgson,
Zero Boys,
The United States of America,
UT,
Joe Finger,
Juan Atkins,
Barbara Tucker,
Letta Mbulu,
Massinfluence,
Deakin,
the Slits,
The American Breed,
Rod Modell,
Big Daddy Kane,
Circle Jerks,
Symarip,
Brick,
Albert Ayler,
The Gories,
Motorama,
Fear,
Barclay James Harvest,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Whodini,
Arthur Verocai,
Minutemen,
John Cale,
Bootsy Collins,
The Music Machine,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Slits,
Amazonics,
Metal Thangz,
Ultimate Spinach,
Camberwell Now,
MC5,
Deepchord,
Danielle Patucci,
Von Mondo,
Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger.
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.