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 Liberia and from Copenhagen.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the sitar 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 Grandmaster Flash to the jazz 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 Black Bananas. All the underground hits.
All Todd Terry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Wells record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Spandau Ballet,
The Cure,
Cameo,
Panda Bear,
The Saints,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Organ,
Black Sheep,
Barrington Levy,
Reuben Wilson,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bizarre Inc.,
Patti Smith,
The Grass Roots,
Scan 7,
Monks,
Ken Boothe,
Saccharine Trust,
Fluxion,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Guru Guru,
Charles Mingus,
Aloha Tigers,
The Trojans,
Amazonics,
Lalo Schifrin,
Gang Starr,
The Moleskins,
The Sonics,
Can,
The Durutti Column,
Lou Reed,
Subhumans,
Shoche,
Thompson Twins,
Peter & Gordon,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
DJ Style,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Gap Band,
X-101,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Standells,
Flipper,
Sister Nancy,
Absolute Body Control,
Kool Moe Dee,
Tim Buckley,
FM Einheit,
Little Man,
Warren Ellis,
Circle Jerks,
Supertramp,
Unwound,
Public Enemy,
Joe Finger,
Parry Music,
The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds.
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.