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 Egypt and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Funky Four + One to the crunk 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 Lindisfarne. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lungfish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rapeman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ponytail,
Thee Headcoats,
Bang On A Can,
Tom Boy,
New Age Steppers,
The Dave Clark Five,
Fatback Band,
Pantytec,
The Cowsills,
Scratch Acid,
Robert Wyatt,
Popol Vuh,
Japan,
Aloha Tigers,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Royal Trux,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Tears for Fears,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Moody Blues,
Prince Buster,
The Last Poets,
Angry Samoans,
Blossom Toes,
Monolake,
The Searchers,
Chris Corsano,
Banda Bassotti,
T. Rex,
MDC,
UT,
Rapeman,
Jacques Brel,
Oblivians,
The Fugs,
The Residents,
Scott Walker,
Depeche Mode,
Don Cherry,
Robert Hood,
Theoretical Girls,
The Slits,
The Barracudas,
Flamin' Groovies,
Can,
Television Personalities,
Althea and Donna,
Suburban Knight,
Gabor Szabo,
Soulsonic Force,
Kool Moe Dee,
The American Breed,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Seeds,
The United States of America,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Rhythm & Sound,
Alice Coltrane,
Country Teasers,
Sixth Finger,
Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw.
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.