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 Burundi and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Accra.
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 marimba 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 Byron Stingily 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 The Smoke. All the underground hits.
All Khruangbin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Minny Pops record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ornette Coleman,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Television Personalities,
Susan Cadogan,
Radiopuhelimet,
Joyce Sims,
Soul II Soul,
The Sound,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Thompson Twins,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Reagan Youth,
Slick Rick,
Flash Fearless,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Essential Logic,
a-ha,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Eurythmics,
Bush Tetras,
Faust,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Boogie Down Productions,
Grandmaster Flash,
Tubeway Army,
Brick,
Black Sheep,
The Alarm Clocks,
Monolake,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Durutti Column,
Cybotron,
Freddie Wadling,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pulsallama,
Johnny Osbourne,
Donald Byrd,
Quantec,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Urselle,
Anakelly,
Todd Terry,
the Germs,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Anthony Braxton,
Kevin Saunderson,
Bootsy Collins,
Jacques Brel,
Kool Moe Dee,
Skaos,
Scrapy,
The Remains,
Cheater Slicks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Invisible,
Barrington Levy,
Wally Richardson,
Lebanon Hanover,
Gong,
The United States of America,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.