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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Bremen.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 snare 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 Donald Byrd to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Invisible. All the underground hits.
All Dual Sessions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Circle Jerks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Gichy Dan,
Bronski Beat,
Con Funk Shun,
CMW,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
This Heat,
Don Cherry,
June Days,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Unrelated Segments,
Babytalk,
The American Breed,
Cybotron,
The Fugs,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Basic Channel,
Soul II Soul,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Amazonics,
Scion,
The Angels of Light,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Smoke,
Sandy B,
Barclay James Harvest,
Black Sheep,
Malaria!,
Donald Byrd,
Janne Schatter,
Camberwell Now,
Piero Umiliani,
Public Image Ltd.,
Big Daddy Kane,
Lungfish,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Marvin Gaye,
Essential Logic,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Real Kids,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ornette Coleman,
DNA,
Groovy Waters,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Quantec,
Fela Kuti,
Sixth Finger,
Rosa Yemen,
Prince Buster,
Danielle Patucci,
The Move,
Dawn Penn,
Kerrie Biddell,
Peter & Gordon,
Alton Ellis,
Wings,
Sugar Minott,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Jacques Brel,
Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape.
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.