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 Argentina and from Lagos.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 oboe 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 Stockholm Monsters to the punk 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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Angels of Light record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New York Dolls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joy Division,
Intrusion,
Sun City Girls,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Scientists,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Model 500,
Lightning Bolt,
ABBA,
48th St. Collective,
The Techniques,
Ice-T,
Lebanon Hanover,
the Slits,
Scratch Acid,
Ronnie Foster,
Bill Near,
Sixth Finger,
Warren Ellis,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Glenn Branca,
The Shadows of Knight,
Howard Jones,
Lungfish,
Pere Ubu,
Flamin' Groovies,
Duran Duran,
Joensuu 1685,
Interpol,
The Vogues,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Stetsasonic,
Lalo Schifrin,
Delon & Dalcan,
Vainqueur,
The Dirtbombs,
Rufus Thomas,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
La Düsseldorf,
The Count Five,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Michelle Simonal,
Spoonie Gee,
the Fania All-Stars,
June of 44,
Faust,
June Days,
Bobby Byrd,
The Music Machine,
Newcleus,
The Detroit Cobras,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Sound,
James White and The Blacks,
The Last Poets,
Bobbi Humphrey,
China Crisis,
Neil Young,
The Beau Brummels,
Sister Nancy,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.