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 Iraq and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the 808 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 Dorothy Ashby to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Pole. All the underground hits.
All Rufus Thomas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every F. McDonald 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Procol Harum record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Japan,
Pussy Galore,
Youth Brigade,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Byron Stingily,
Sugar Minott,
Von Mondo,
Young Marble Giants,
Wire,
Sällskapet,
The Young Rascals,
This Heat,
T. Rex,
Suburban Knight,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Morten Harket,
Visage,
Boogie Down Productions,
Tubeway Army,
Moby Grape,
Erykah Badu,
Jandek,
Model 500,
Depeche Mode,
Suicide,
Simply Red,
Anakelly,
Thompson Twins,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Pop Group,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Robert Hood,
Kurtis Blow,
48th St. Collective,
The Sonics,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Davy DMX,
Kas Product,
The Litter,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Skaos,
the Germs,
Babytalk,
Faust,
Dorothy Ashby,
Banda Bassotti,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sister Nancy,
China Crisis,
Robert Görl,
The Slackers,
Ornette Coleman,
Susan Cadogan,
Marvin Gaye,
The Star Department,
JFA,
Angry Samoans,
Blancmange,
Essential Logic,
Derrick Morgan,
Arab on Radar,
The American Breed,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
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.