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 Bolivia and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 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 Fatback Band to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Agitation Free. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quadrant record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ronnie Foster,
Kaleidoscope,
Jerry's Kids,
Gang Gang Dance,
Letta Mbulu,
The Dead C,
The Seeds,
Groovy Waters,
Laurel Aitken,
The Golliwogs,
Eli Mardock,
The J.B.'s,
The Selecter,
Iggy Pop,
Faust,
R.M.O.,
The Slits,
Eric Dolphy,
Bizarre Inc.,
Schoolly D,
New York Dolls,
Erasure,
Mo-Dettes,
Au Pairs,
Slick Rick,
Trumans Water,
Sonny Sharrock,
Interpol,
Harmonia,
Brass Construction,
Banda Bassotti,
Bobby Byrd,
Joensuu 1685,
the Association,
The Angels of Light,
Subhumans,
The Evens,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Alarm Clocks,
Symarip,
Eden Ahbez,
Avey Tare,
The Fugs,
Dennis Brown,
James White and The Blacks,
Gang Starr,
8 Eyed Spy,
Sex Pistols,
Clear Light,
Henry Cow,
Bush Tetras,
Joe Smooth,
The Dirtbombs,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Talk Talk,
Los Fastidios,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Kerrie Biddell,
Dark Day,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Searchers,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.