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 Korea North and from Mumbai.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 The Neon Judgement to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Stockholm Monsters. All the underground hits.
All Nas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Idris Muhammad record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Excepter,
Gang of Four,
Archie Shepp,
The Knickerbockers,
Swell Maps,
These Immortal Souls,
Section 25,
Nas,
DJ Style,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Trumans Water,
Donald Byrd,
Boz Scaggs,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Youth Brigade,
Brick,
Stiv Bators,
T. Rex,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Slits,
The Red Krayola,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Guru Guru,
Brass Construction,
Byron Stingily,
A Certain Ratio,
the Bar-Kays,
The Music Machine,
Arthur Verocai,
The Modern Lovers,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Talk Talk,
DJ Sneak,
Deakin,
Dark Day,
Cybotron,
Roxy Music,
Man Eating Sloth,
Country Teasers,
H. Thieme,
Bang On A Can,
Peter & Gordon,
Heaven 17,
The Associates,
Lucky Dragons,
The Dirtbombs,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Moleskins,
Anthony Braxton,
In Retrospect,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
E-Dancer,
The Star Department,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Iggy Pop,
Adolescents,
China Crisis,
The Cramps,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Babytalk,
Dawn Penn,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud.
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.