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 Korea North and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Banda Bassotti to the grunge 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 Johnny Clarke. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young & Crazy Horse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ken Boothe 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 an organ and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
Marshall Jefferson,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Harry Pussy,
Sun City Girls,
Average White Band,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sixth Finger,
The Victims,
Boz Scaggs,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Jandek,
Spandau Ballet,
Surgeon,
Essential Logic,
The Beau Brummels,
Soulsonic Force,
The Fortunes,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
the Association,
LL Cool J,
Minny Pops,
Television Personalities,
The Blackbyrds,
John Cale,
Ice-T,
Fugazi,
Zero Boys,
Arthur Verocai,
Lindisfarne,
Janne Schatter,
The Neon Judgement,
Peter and Kerry,
Pere Ubu,
Freddie Wadling,
Nirvana,
Hot Snakes,
Eve St. Jones,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Happenings,
Delon & Dalcan,
Mark Hollis,
Nation of Ulysses,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Star Department,
Eli Mardock,
UT,
Glenn Branca,
Don Cherry,
The Saints,
Wally Richardson,
Lower 48,
Animal Collective,
H. Thieme,
48th St. Collective,
Lucky Dragons,
Banda Bassotti,
John Foxx,
Cecil Taylor,
Ken Boothe,
Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins.
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.