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 Seychelles and from Taipei.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Boz Scaggs to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 MC5. All the underground hits.
All The Toasters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Sheep 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mo-Dettes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bob Dylan,
Jandek,
The Skatalites,
John Holt,
Albert Ayler,
Joy Division,
Roger Hodgson,
Scan 7,
Carl Craig,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Alison Limerick,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Toasters,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
the Association,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Bronski Beat,
Godley & Creme,
Stereo Dub,
The Raincoats,
Nik Kershaw,
The Selecter,
Second Layer,
Banda Bassotti,
Quadrant,
Ludus,
Das Ding,
Reuben Wilson,
The J.B.'s,
The United States of America,
The Five Americans,
Echospace,
Symarip,
Rotary Connection,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
8 Eyed Spy,
Brick,
Lalann,
Khruangbin,
Sound Behaviour,
Sam Rivers,
Young Marble Giants,
Babytalk,
Kerrie Biddell,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Duran Duran,
Marine Girls,
Al Stewart,
Minor Threat,
The Slits,
Sixth Finger,
Public Image Ltd.,
Patti Smith,
Groovy Waters,
Oblivians,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Amon Düül II,
New Order,
The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues.
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.