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 Burkina and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 Taipei and Tokyo.
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 snare 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 Gang Green 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 D'Angelo. All the underground hits.
All Au Pairs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marmalade 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Sun City Girls,
X-102,
DNA,
Subhumans,
Flash Fearless,
The Happenings,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Patti Smith,
Gregory Isaacs,
Robert Görl,
Rekid,
Eddi Front,
Moss Icon,
the Soft Cell,
Fela Kuti,
The Fugs,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rakim,
Radiohead,
Sister Nancy,
Mars,
Soft Cell,
Crash Course in Science,
UT,
Aloha Tigers,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Red Krayola,
X-101,
Mary Jane Girls,
the Sonics,
Fugazi,
Ten City,
Negative Approach,
Warsaw,
Marmalade,
Connie Case,
Tomorrow,
The Monochrome Set,
the Germs,
The Dave Clark Five,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Wings,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Kerri Chandler,
Lyres,
Eric Dolphy,
Panda Bear,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sam Rivers,
Terry Callier,
Gil Scott Heron,
Deadbeat,
DJ Sneak,
K-Klass,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Barry Ungar,
Bill Wells,
Eurythmics,
Charles Mingus,
Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, Sparks.
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.