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 Chile and from Woodstock.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 guitar 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 The Beau Brummels to the rap 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 Pere Ubu. All the underground hits.
All Stiv Bators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pagans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harry Pussy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barry Ungar,
Funky Four + One,
PIL,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Oblivians,
Basic Channel,
Lakeside,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Piero Umiliani,
James White and The Blacks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Shadows of Knight,
Moebius,
Little Man,
Theoretical Girls,
Reuben Wilson,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Adolescents,
Altered Images,
Eve St. Jones,
Joey Negro,
B.T. Express,
The Last Poets,
Leonard Cohen,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Joe Finger,
Eden Ahbez,
Pierre Henry,
Brothers Johnson,
Ralphi Rosario,
Jeff Mills,
Pantytec,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jimmy McGriff,
Cluster,
John Holt,
Metal Thangz,
Curtis Mayfield,
Jacob Miller,
Negative Approach,
World's Most,
Ultravox,
Albert Ayler,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Morten Harket,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sight & Sound,
Los Fastidios,
Glambeats Corp.,
Scion,
Robert Hood,
John Cale,
This Heat,
Mars,
The Skatalites,
Jeff Lynne,
Slave,
Lindisfarne,
The Walker Brothers,
The Index, The Index, The Index, The Index.
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.