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 Brazil and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 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 The Slits to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Wasted Youth. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every In Retrospect record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Swans 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?
Warren Ellis,
Todd Rundgren,
X-101,
The Fugs,
The Vogues,
Funky Four + One,
R.M.O.,
Tom Boy,
D'Angelo,
The Misunderstood,
Absolute Body Control,
Radiopuhelimet,
Gang of Four,
Barbara Tucker,
LL Cool J,
Tim Buckley,
Can,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Searchers,
Faust,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Toni Rubio,
Erasure,
Pantytec,
Outsiders,
Girls At Our Best!,
Idris Muhammad,
Aloha Tigers,
the Human League,
Neil Young,
The Litter,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Sonic Youth,
Glambeats Corp.,
Kayak,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Jimmy McGriff,
Erykah Badu,
Robert Wyatt,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Amon Düül,
Lyres,
Arab on Radar,
Inner City,
Essential Logic,
The Wake,
Metal Thangz,
Skaos,
John Coltrane,
Mo-Dettes,
The Electric Prunes,
Bootsy Collins,
Cybotron,
Unrelated Segments,
Joe Finger,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Reagan Youth,
Motorama, Motorama, Motorama, Motorama.
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.