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 Libya and from Hong Kong.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Piero Umiliani to the jazz 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 The Black Dice. All the underground hits.
All The Gap Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crispian St. Peters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Donny Hathaway,
Malaria!,
Fatback Band,
New York Dolls,
Scott Walker,
The Knickerbockers,
Bill Near,
Cluster,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Marcia Griffiths,
Nas,
Roxette,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Dave Clark Five,
Pantaleimon,
Alison Limerick,
Lyres,
Susan Cadogan,
Technova,
Newcleus,
Soul Sonic Force,
Minnie Riperton,
The Trojans,
the Normal,
The Shadows of Knight,
EPMD,
Aloha Tigers,
JFA,
Basic Channel,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Gories,
Grauzone,
Aswad,
Ludus,
The Offenders,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Leonard Cohen,
Sun Ra,
Mars,
Gang Starr,
the Bar-Kays,
The Zeros,
Drexciya,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Siglo XX,
the Association,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Tom Boy,
Angry Samoans,
8 Eyed Spy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Underground Resistance,
Rekid,
Sparks,
Roger Hodgson,
MDC,
the Fania All-Stars,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.