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 Lebanon and from Toronto.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Milan.
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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Porter Ricks to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Motions 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gladiators record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roxy Music,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Blossom Toes,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Martian,
Adolescents,
The Pretty Things,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
B.T. Express,
Jandek,
Dennis Brown,
the Swans,
Scrapy,
Lou Christie,
Stetsasonic,
Essential Logic,
The Sonics,
Kas Product,
Sam Rivers,
Eli Mardock,
Joey Negro,
Skaos,
Fugazi,
UT,
Sex Pistols,
The Gun Club,
Hasil Adkins,
Scott Walker,
Warren Ellis,
Lalann,
Byron Stingily,
Eric Dolphy,
Traffic Nightmare,
Angry Samoans,
Quantec,
The Golliwogs,
Nico,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Janne Schatter,
Gang Gang Dance,
Surgeon,
Gil Scott Heron,
New Order,
the Human League,
Boz Scaggs,
T.S.O.L.,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Joe Smooth,
Intrusion,
Gerry Rafferty,
Grauzone,
Radiohead,
Fela Kuti,
Basic Channel,
Parry Music,
Visage,
Schoolly D,
Zapp,
The Moody Blues,
Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force.
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.