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 Gabon and from Delhi.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Jimmy McGriff tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nick Fraelich 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bang on a Can All-Stars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Henry Cow,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Sonic Youth,
MDC,
Youth Brigade,
Basic Channel,
Essential Logic,
Boz Scaggs,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Isaac Hayes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Fortunes,
the Germs,
K-Klass,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Todd Rundgren,
Tubeway Army,
Kerrie Biddell,
Sun Ra,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Skaos,
Sight & Sound,
Cluster,
Kerri Chandler,
The Busters,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Joy Division,
Pantytec,
The Trojans,
the Association,
John Holt,
Pharoah Sanders,
Buzzcocks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Dead Boys,
Crime,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Rufus Thomas,
Pylon,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Hot Snakes,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Scrapy,
China Crisis,
Groovy Waters,
Terrestrial Tones,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Q and Not U,
Blancmange,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Young Rascals,
Barry Ungar,
Panda Bear,
The Velvet Underground,
The Mojo Men,
Jesper Dahlback,
Fugazi,
Skriet, Skriet, Skriet, Skriet.
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.