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 Iceland and from Johannesburg.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 marimba 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 Donald Byrd to the crunk 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 Banda Bassotti. All the underground hits.
All Quando Quango tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 mellotron and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sexual Harrassment record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Swans,
Au Pairs,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Yaz,
Black Sheep,
Aural Exciters,
Agent Orange,
Ludus,
Blancmange,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mandrill,
Bluetip,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Swans,
Sarah Menescal,
Grandmaster Flash,
AZ,
Rosa Yemen,
Glenn Branca,
Graham Central Station,
The United States of America,
The Move,
Eli Mardock,
Marvin Gaye,
Scrapy,
Matthew Halsall,
The Smiths,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Popol Vuh,
Letta Mbulu,
Buzzcocks,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Aloha Tigers,
Bob Dylan,
Niagra,
The Searchers,
Lower 48,
Hardrive,
Minor Threat,
Black Flag,
Sex Pistols,
Agitation Free,
T.S.O.L.,
Idris Muhammad,
The Gladiators,
E-Dancer,
The Fall,
Depeche Mode,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Derrick Morgan,
Johnny Clarke,
Arab on Radar,
Yazoo,
Mars,
The Slits,
Lakeside,
Curtis Mayfield,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
MC5,
H. Thieme,
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.