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 Mozambique and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Flesh Eaters to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 FM Einheit. All the underground hits.
All Marine Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gregory Isaacs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Japan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
T.S.O.L.,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Aloha Tigers,
Matthew Bourne,
Rapeman,
Minutemen,
Index,
Ituana,
Fat Boys,
Funky Four + One,
Tomorrow,
Kurtis Blow,
Derrick May,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
John Cale,
Intrusion,
Spandau Ballet,
Alton Ellis,
Dual Sessions,
Excepter,
The J.B.'s,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Black Pus,
Prince Buster,
Boredoms,
Faust,
New Order,
Godley & Creme,
Ralphi Rosario,
Glambeats Corp.,
A Certain Ratio,
Thee Headcoats,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Sonics,
Scrapy,
Al Stewart,
The Buckinghams,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Vogues,
K-Klass,
Yusef Lateef,
Sexual Harrassment,
Bluetip,
Lucky Dragons,
Television Personalities,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Inner City,
The Misunderstood,
The Busters,
Swell Maps,
The Dirtbombs,
Bauhaus,
Stereo Dub,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Junior Murvin,
Cal Tjader,
The Gap Band,
The American Breed,
The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes.
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.