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 Botswana and from Lyon.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
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 Sun Ra to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Trumans Water. All the underground hits.
All Fatback Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soulsonic Force record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Raincoats,
Sexual Harrassment,
Harry Pussy,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
David Bowie,
Magazine,
Godley & Creme,
Brothers Johnson,
Reagan Youth,
Brand Nubian,
Henry Cow,
Babytalk,
Marine Girls,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Warsaw,
Piero Umiliani,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Deadbeat,
Black Sheep,
Max Romeo,
Jacques Brel,
Erasure,
Thee Headcoats,
The Angels of Light,
Parry Music,
Mars,
Warren Ellis,
Grauzone,
Lebanon Hanover,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Shadows of Knight,
Pulsallama,
The Martian,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lakeside,
Joensuu 1685,
Howard Jones,
Arab on Radar,
Faraquet,
the Bar-Kays,
T. Rex,
Nas,
Nik Kershaw,
Flash Fearless,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Wolf Eyes,
Arthur Verocai,
These Immortal Souls,
Au Pairs,
Royal Trux,
Lower 48,
Jandek,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Isaac Hayes,
Hot Snakes,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Last Poets,
Davy DMX,
Soulsonic Force,
Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe.
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.