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 Nigeria and from Shanghai.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell to the jazz 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 Kerri Chandler. All the underground hits.
All the Normal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Larry & the Blue Notes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Das Ding record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
X-Ray Spex,
Young Marble Giants,
David Axelrod,
David Bowie,
Tres Demented,
The Dirtbombs,
Fear,
Jeff Mills,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
This Heat,
Kerrie Biddell,
Anthony Braxton,
Monolake,
The Gories,
Boogie Down Productions,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Toasters,
UT,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Red Krayola,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Erykah Badu,
Das Ding,
New York Dolls,
The J.B.'s,
Pere Ubu,
Royal Trux,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rhythm & Sound,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Girls At Our Best!,
Bizarre Inc.,
Rotary Connection,
Pagans,
Fat Boys,
E-Dancer,
Charles Mingus,
Section 25,
Harmonia,
Eli Mardock,
Eden Ahbez,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Silicon Teens,
Patti Smith,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sun Ra,
Electric Prunes,
Smog,
CMW,
Kevin Saunderson,
MDC,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Morten Harket,
Yellowson,
Magazine,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Black Dice,
Man Parrish,
Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters.
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.