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 Vanuatu and from Seoul.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Stockholm.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Sugar Minott to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Lungfish. All the underground hits.
All Joey Negro tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Art Ensemble Of Chicago record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Max Romeo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skriet,
Bobby Byrd,
Rod Modell,
Von Mondo,
DNA,
Hoover,
LL Cool J,
Boz Scaggs,
Grauzone,
The Motions,
The Searchers,
Royal Trux,
Public Image Ltd.,
The New Christs,
Bobby Womack,
Rakim,
Electric Prunes,
Leonard Cohen,
Malaria!,
Harmonia,
Sun Ra,
The Dead C,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Drive Like Jehu,
Funkadelic,
Loose Ends,
Sam Rivers,
Throbbing Gristle,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Pagans,
The Names,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Flesh Eaters,
Lindisfarne,
Crash Course in Science,
Rhythm & Sound,
Nick Fraelich,
Johnny Clarke,
Adolescents,
The Mummies,
Tommy Roe,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Gories,
Rapeman,
Organ,
June Days,
Clear Light,
the Soft Cell,
Kerrie Biddell,
Anakelly,
Shuggie Otis,
Mary Jane Girls,
Dawn Penn,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Jacques Brel,
John Lydon,
Minutemen,
Pierre Henry,
Absolute Body Control,
Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding.
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.