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 Algeria and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 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 Bobby Byrd to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Barrington Levy. All the underground hits.
All Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yusef Lateef record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef 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?
Bad Manners,
In Retrospect,
Cecil Taylor,
The Raincoats,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bobby Sherman,
Banda Bassotti,
Massinfluence,
Harmonia,
Underground Resistance,
Nation of Ulysses,
Dead Boys,
Rhythm & Sound,
F. McDonald,
Barrington Levy,
Loose Ends,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sex Pistols,
Derrick Morgan,
the Sonics,
Roger Hodgson,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Lower 48,
Subhumans,
Henry Cow,
The Slackers,
Pantaleimon,
Marc Almond,
Kurtis Blow,
New Order,
The Black Dice,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Sandy B,
The Mighty Diamonds,
AZ,
Adolescents,
FM Einheit,
The Move,
Graham Central Station,
John Holt,
T. Rex,
Accadde A,
Boredoms,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Jacques Brel,
David Bowie,
Roxy Music,
U.S. Maple,
Black Sheep,
8 Eyed Spy,
Lee Hazlewood,
Charles Mingus,
Josef K,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Siglo XX,
Lalo Schifrin,
Crash Course in Science,
Joyce Sims,
The Wake,
Symarip,
Television Personalities,
Ken Boothe,
John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane.
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.