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 Chile and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Dennis Brown to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Animal Collective. All the underground hits.
All The Peanut Butter Conspiracy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Letta Mbulu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 a sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Al Stewart record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minor Threat,
Neil Young,
The Names,
Brick,
Country Teasers,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Birthday Party,
48th St. Collective,
Symarip,
Hasil Adkins,
Stockholm Monsters,
Anthony Braxton,
Man Eating Sloth,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Avey Tare,
Todd Terry,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Bizarre Inc.,
The United States of America,
Pere Ubu,
Eddi Front,
Chrome,
Schoolly D,
Royal Trux,
The Move,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Idris Muhammad,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Fluxion,
Alice Coltrane,
Mantronix,
Flipper,
Laurel Aitken,
Gong,
Amazonics,
The Gap Band,
Pulsallama,
D'Angelo,
The Five Americans,
Sun City Girls,
David Bowie,
Minutemen,
The Doors,
Ponytail,
Shuggie Otis,
Q65,
Sugar Minott,
the Human League,
Nils Olav,
Marmalade,
Reagan Youth,
Jerry's Kids,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ice-T,
The Black Dice,
Half Japanese,
Derrick May,
Thompson Twins,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Cal Tjader,
Sixth Finger,
Tommy Roe,
Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion.
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.