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 Morocco and from Salvador.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 snare 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 Sixth Finger to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Youth Brigade. All the underground hits.
All Supertramp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rhythm & Sound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a London Community Gospel Choir record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Young Rascals,
Jeru the Damaja,
Susan Cadogan,
Lightning Bolt,
Gichy Dan,
Q and Not U,
B.T. Express,
Black Moon,
Man Parrish,
The Fugs,
The Last Poets,
Rakim,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Severed Heads,
Janne Schatter,
Warsaw,
a-ha,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Standells,
FM Einheit,
Judy Mowatt,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Human League,
Gastr Del Sol,
World's Most,
Tropical Tobacco,
Cybotron,
Marcia Griffiths,
Roger Hodgson,
Graham Central Station,
Mad Mike,
The Stooges,
Inner City,
Surgeon,
Little Man,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Zero Boys,
Wire,
Davy DMX,
Sun City Girls,
Qualms,
Simply Red,
Kaleidoscope,
The Pop Group,
Easy Going,
Terrestrial Tones,
Kurtis Blow,
Amazonics,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Buckinghams,
The Selecter,
Black Flag,
Banda Bassotti,
Aaron Thompson,
The Zeros,
Gang Gang Dance,
Yazoo,
Roxy Music,
The Black Dice,
Joe Smooth,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Man Eating Sloth,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.