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 Nigeria and from Manchester.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Fat Boys to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Flash Fearless. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Man Parrish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Y Pants,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Busters,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Grass Roots,
Pet Shop Boys,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Loose Ends,
The Kinks,
World's Most,
Byron Stingily,
Kurtis Blow,
Max Romeo,
Graham Central Station,
Wasted Youth,
Smog,
The Selecter,
Bad Manners,
Model 500,
Sight & Sound,
DNA,
Maurizio,
Mo-Dettes,
Quadrant,
Davy DMX,
Second Layer,
Cluster,
Saccharine Trust,
The Seeds,
Pagans,
Thompson Twins,
Erasure,
Aloha Tigers,
Gregory Isaacs,
Accadde A,
Henry Cow,
The Smoke,
Minutemen,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tears for Fears,
Deakin,
Steve Hackett,
The Fuzztones,
Simply Red,
Bluetip,
Albert Ayler,
The Cure,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Junior Murvin,
Cecil Taylor,
The Fugs,
Average White Band,
48th St. Collective,
Drive Like Jehu,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Fluxion,
Guru Guru,
Blake Baxter,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Jeff Mills,
The Dirtbombs,
The Electric Prunes, The Electric Prunes, The Electric Prunes, The Electric Prunes.
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.