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 Dominican Republic and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Scan 7 to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bobby Hutcherson. All the underground hits.
All Dead Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Babytalk 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lightning Bolt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Swans,
Supertramp,
MC5,
Circle Jerks,
Ituana,
Nils Olav,
Rakim,
Don Cherry,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
cv313,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Nation of Ulysses,
Newcleus,
Simply Red,
New Age Steppers,
Crispy Ambulance,
David Axelrod,
These Immortal Souls,
Main Source,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Wasted Youth,
Icehouse,
The Gap Band,
The Move,
Gabor Szabo,
John Coltrane,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
X-102,
Archie Shepp,
Jimmy McGriff,
Maurizio,
T. Rex,
Public Image Ltd.,
Scion,
The Victims,
Easy Going,
Siglo XX,
The Doobie Brothers,
Barry Ungar,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Severed Heads,
The Wake,
D'Angelo,
Gang Gang Dance,
Rekid,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Fortunes,
The Litter,
The Busters,
The Electric Prunes,
Niagra,
La Düsseldorf,
Lightning Bolt,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Dawn Penn,
Negative Approach,
Arab on Radar,
Unrelated Segments,
Kas Product,
Au Pairs,
Agent Orange, Agent Orange, Agent Orange, Agent Orange.
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.