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 Spain and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the guitar 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 AZ to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All Negative Approach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Electric Prunes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rosa Yemen,
The Gun Club,
Essential Logic,
Alice Coltrane,
Tom Boy,
Metal Thangz,
Magma,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Angry Samoans,
Rakim,
Mad Mike,
Marmalade,
Hashim,
Massinfluence,
Man Parrish,
Sixth Finger,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Accadde A,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
James White and The Blacks,
B.T. Express,
In Retrospect,
Gang Green,
Johnny Clarke,
Excepter,
The Zeros,
Procol Harum,
Supertramp,
Pantaleimon,
Funkadelic,
Pierre Henry,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Grass Roots,
Moby Grape,
Rufus Thomas,
Deadbeat,
Blancmange,
The Star Department,
Organ,
Matthew Bourne,
David Axelrod,
KRS-One,
Crispy Ambulance,
Marvin Gaye,
The Invisible,
Kayak,
Jeff Mills,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Black Bananas,
Radio Birdman,
Gang Gang Dance,
Drive Like Jehu,
Robert Wyatt,
Fatback Band,
Danielle Patucci,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Warren Ellis,
Scott Walker,
The Smoke,
Terry Callier,
Joe Finger,
Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day.
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.