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 Iraq and from Johannesburg.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 clarinet 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 Supertramp to the techno 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 Joey Negro. All the underground hits.
All Stockholm Monsters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harpers Bizarre 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DNA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bush Tetras,
Half Japanese,
48th St. Collective,
Tropical Tobacco,
Sandy B,
Y Pants,
Severed Heads,
Boredoms,
Fatback Band,
Funkadelic,
Man Parrish,
L. Decosne,
The Barracudas,
Ludus,
Rapeman,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Theoretical Girls,
Alton Ellis,
Black Pus,
Absolute Body Control,
Lakeside,
Grandmaster Flash,
B.T. Express,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Gories,
Bobby Byrd,
Stiv Bators,
Matthew Halsall,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Average White Band,
The Buckinghams,
Ponytail,
LL Cool J,
Magma,
PIL,
Patti Smith,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Wings,
Roxy Music,
Blake Baxter,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Terry Callier,
The Dave Clark Five,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Underground Resistance,
Grauzone,
Laurel Aitken,
Slave,
Can,
Crooked Eye,
The Walker Brothers,
Spoonie Gee,
Electric Prunes,
Fear,
The Slits,
Minny Pops,
Flamin' Groovies,
Malaria!,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
A Certain Ratio,
Groovy Waters,
Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel.
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.