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 China and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 The Golliwogs to the punk 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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All Gang Starr tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ornette Coleman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings 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?
Crooked Eye,
The Cowsills,
Jerry's Kids,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Velvet Underground,
the Bar-Kays,
Fatback Band,
The Busters,
Magma,
T.S.O.L.,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rapeman,
Judy Mowatt,
Tomorrow,
Skaos,
Wolf Eyes,
Jacob Miller,
Scott Walker,
Erykah Badu,
Television Personalities,
David Axelrod,
The Kinks,
Shuggie Otis,
Suburban Knight,
Organ,
Bobby Byrd,
Japan,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Eve St. Jones,
The Skatalites,
Aswad,
Icehouse,
Anakelly,
Stetsasonic,
the Normal,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Black Pus,
Leonard Cohen,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
New Order,
Glenn Branca,
The Angels of Light,
LL Cool J,
John Coltrane,
Byron Stingily,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Yellowson,
X-Ray Spex,
Robert Wyatt,
DNA,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Kayak,
Cecil Taylor,
Underground Resistance,
Tears for Fears,
Brick,
Roxette,
Brand Nubian,
Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama.
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.