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 Italy and from Spokane.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 EPMD to the rap 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 Babytalk. All the underground hits.
All The Leaves tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Underground Resistance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Teenage Jesus and the Jerks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Talk Talk,
Jeru the Damaja,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Janne Schatter,
Donny Hathaway,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Gories,
The Golliwogs,
Au Pairs,
Boogie Down Productions,
Delta 5,
Sound Behaviour,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Pole,
The Cowsills,
Banda Bassotti,
K-Klass,
Scratch Acid,
The Skatalites,
These Immortal Souls,
Tubeway Army,
John Coltrane,
Swell Maps,
Second Layer,
Darondo,
T.S.O.L.,
The Gladiators,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Remains,
Inner City,
New Order,
The Fugs,
Jeff Mills,
Shuggie Otis,
The Standells,
The Trojans,
Joy Division,
Davy DMX,
Schoolly D,
Duran Duran,
Gang of Four,
Neil Young,
Motorama,
Beasts of Bourbon,
the Normal,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
48th St. Collective,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
the Human League,
Ponytail,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Gap Band,
Mo-Dettes,
Hasil Adkins,
Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu.
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.