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 Ethiopia and from Jakarta.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Cameo to the techno 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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan. All the underground hits.
All In Retrospect tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eden Ahbez record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Al Stewart record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shuggie Otis,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The J.B.'s,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Black Flag,
Mark Hollis,
Mantronix,
Rekid,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Boredoms,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Kurtis Blow,
Bill Near,
Susan Cadogan,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David McCallum,
Black Bananas,
Kas Product,
Inner City,
David Axelrod,
the Sonics,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Gories,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Minor Threat,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Pantaleimon,
Sex Pistols,
Pulsallama,
MDC,
Lakeside,
Bluetip,
Trumans Water,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Robert Görl,
Magma,
KRS-One,
Ice-T,
Crooked Eye,
The Fortunes,
Y Pants,
Negative Approach,
The Leaves,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Liliput,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Arcadia,
Robert Hood,
Lyres,
Can,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Kenny Larkin,
Scion,
Nico,
Hasil Adkins,
Whodini,
U.S. Maple,
Bronski Beat,
Chrome,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ralphi Rosario,
Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars.
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.