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 Togo and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Taipei.
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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Colin Newman. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Pus,
Zero Boys,
Lee Hazlewood,
Accadde A,
John Foxx,
Trumans Water,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Count Five,
Clear Light,
Fat Boys,
X-102,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Boredoms,
Lou Reed,
The Monks,
Oblivians,
F. McDonald,
La Düsseldorf,
CMW,
Blake Baxter,
Country Teasers,
Fad Gadget,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Fuzztones,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Graham Central Station,
Interpol,
The Last Poets,
Electric Prunes,
Kurtis Blow,
Rakim,
Essential Logic,
Lyres,
Amon Düül II,
The Buckinghams,
The Alarm Clocks,
Erykah Badu,
The Pop Group,
Max Romeo,
The Gun Club,
Nick Fraelich,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Moebius,
The Vogues,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Slits,
Bizarre Inc.,
Nas,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Sonics,
Jesper Dahlback,
Grauzone,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Slave,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Popol Vuh,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Patti Smith,
Sight & Sound,
Chris Corsano,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.