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 South Sudan and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 snare 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 LL Cool J to the dance 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 Public Image Ltd.. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis 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 clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-102,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ponytail,
Excepter,
Deakin,
Ornette Coleman,
The Monks,
Altered Images,
Faust,
The Saints,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Camberwell Now,
Wasted Youth,
Kerri Chandler,
The Mojo Men,
Cameo,
Shoche,
Bush Tetras,
Bad Manners,
Wings,
the Sonics,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
X-101,
Jimmy McGriff,
Fatback Band,
The Residents,
Deepchord,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Minor Threat,
Khruangbin,
Animal Collective,
Crash Course in Science,
Lyres,
Johnny Osbourne,
Vladislav Delay,
Lightning Bolt,
Gang Starr,
Kas Product,
Moebius,
Soulsonic Force,
H. Thieme,
Terry Callier,
Marine Girls,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Lebanon Hanover,
Neil Young,
The Count Five,
Laurel Aitken,
Boogie Down Productions,
Harmonia,
The Evens,
Dorothy Ashby,
Black Moon,
The Dirtbombs,
Aural Exciters,
Junior Murvin,
Kenny Larkin,
The Birthday Party,
Warsaw,
China Crisis,
Bootsy Collins,
Infiniti,
The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters.
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.