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 Slovakia and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Trumans Water to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 the Swans. All the underground hits.
All Country Joe & The Fish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Blackbyrds 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 '80s.
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 The Real Kids record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Dorothy Ashby,
La Düsseldorf,
The Sound,
Ken Boothe,
The Evens,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gang Green,
Shuggie Otis,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Zero Boys,
The Names,
Pharoah Sanders,
Gerry Rafferty,
Camberwell Now,
Gang Starr,
The Fugs,
Scientists,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Johnny Osbourne,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Flash Fearless,
Bauhaus,
Unrelated Segments,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Wire,
Yazoo,
The Smoke,
Minor Threat,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Man Eating Sloth,
John Cale,
Vainqueur,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
E-Dancer,
Harmonia,
Tropical Tobacco,
LL Cool J,
Dennis Brown,
June of 44,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Skaos,
Yaz,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Television Personalities,
Eric Copeland,
Lebanon Hanover,
Cal Tjader,
The Birthday Party,
The Cowsills,
Kerri Chandler,
Drexciya,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
U.S. Maple,
Terry Callier,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Brothers Johnson,
Malaria!,
Tomorrow,
Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D.
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.