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 Luxembourg and from Woodstock.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Slave to the jazz 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago. All the underground hits.
All The Red Krayola tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Malaria! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Popol Vuh record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Charles Mingus,
Yusef Lateef,
Television Personalities,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Rhythm & Sound,
Maleditus Sound,
The Zeros,
Darondo,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
the Soft Cell,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Robert Hood,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
LL Cool J,
Mad Mike,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Laurel Aitken,
The Misunderstood,
OOIOO,
Massinfluence,
Robert Wyatt,
The Offenders,
Moss Icon,
The Star Department,
A Certain Ratio,
Inner City,
Con Funk Shun,
Country Joe & The Fish,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Pop Group,
The Smoke,
Aural Exciters,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
the Sonics,
The Modern Lovers,
Ronan,
Blake Baxter,
June Days,
H. Thieme,
Minny Pops,
Colin Newman,
The Count Five,
Moebius,
Das Ding,
Alison Limerick,
Rod Modell,
Symarip,
the Bar-Kays,
Erykah Badu,
The Smiths,
Mars,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The J.B.'s,
Visage,
Subhumans,
U.S. Maple,
Anthony Braxton,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Victims,
Echospace, Echospace, Echospace, Echospace.
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.