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 Solomon Islands and from Philadelphia.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 Lou Reed 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 Bootsy's Rubber Band to the disco kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The New Christs 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Absolute Body Control record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ponytail,
Kurtis Blow,
Barry Ungar,
ABC,
Derrick Morgan,
Maurizio,
Letta Mbulu,
Pet Shop Boys,
the Association,
Suburban Knight,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Blake Baxter,
The Raincoats,
David Axelrod,
Robert Görl,
Boogie Down Productions,
MC5,
Echospace,
Delta 5,
Schoolly D,
The Misunderstood,
Maleditus Sound,
Ultimate Spinach,
Pierre Henry,
Bronski Beat,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
the Soft Cell,
Sixth Finger,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Wire,
Black Sheep,
Mandrill,
The Associates,
Cybotron,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Robert Hood,
Crispian St. Peters,
MDC,
Pharoah Sanders,
Soft Machine,
Subhumans,
Bauhaus,
The Cowsills,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Fire Engines,
Bad Manners,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Dark Day,
Little Man,
Jacob Miller,
Erykah Badu,
Curtis Mayfield,
Mo-Dettes,
CMW,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Arthur Verocai,
Ornette Coleman,
Hardrive,
The Move,
Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily.
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.