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 Bhutan and from Manila.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Pretty Things to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Ituana. All the underground hits.
All Davy DMX tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Barracudas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun City Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Royal Trux,
Wasted Youth,
Magma,
World's Most,
The Human League,
Avey Tare,
Lou Reed,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Names,
Pulsallama,
the Fania All-Stars,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Lalo Schifrin,
Marmalade,
Black Bananas,
The Fuzztones,
Hashim,
The Stooges,
Technova,
L. Decosne,
Intrusion,
Lucky Dragons,
Nirvana,
Siglo XX,
The Golliwogs,
The Cowsills,
Angry Samoans,
Sister Nancy,
Cymande,
Piero Umiliani,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Jandek,
La Düsseldorf,
The Selecter,
X-102,
The Walker Brothers,
Rekid,
Con Funk Shun,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lalann,
The Litter,
Tubeway Army,
Basic Channel,
Trumans Water,
Fugazi,
Bobby Sherman,
Nick Fraelich,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Associates,
Sugar Minott,
Public Enemy,
The Smoke,
Roger Hodgson,
Gerry Rafferty,
Lakeside,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Ice-T,
The Happenings,
Patti Smith,
Slave,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.