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 Panama and from Seoul.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 mellotron 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 Arcadia to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Bluetip. All the underground hits.
All Tim Buckley tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David McCallum,
The United States of America,
Duran Duran,
Subhumans,
L. Decosne,
Big Daddy Kane,
Zero Boys,
Suicide,
The Blackbyrds,
Godley & Creme,
Visage,
The Moleskins,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Sonics,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cheater Slicks,
Cal Tjader,
Sound Behaviour,
Aswad,
Grauzone,
Cecil Taylor,
Surgeon,
June of 44,
The Smoke,
Banda Bassotti,
Pussy Galore,
Thee Headcoats,
Quantec,
Dual Sessions,
Eden Ahbez,
Mo-Dettes,
The Residents,
Warren Ellis,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Tom Boy,
The Five Americans,
Black Pus,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sarah Menescal,
OOIOO,
Black Flag,
Shuggie Otis,
Robert Hood,
Basic Channel,
Accadde A,
Excepter,
Tubeway Army,
Barrington Levy,
Kayak,
Ronnie Foster,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Warsaw,
The Buckinghams,
Sonny Sharrock,
Glenn Branca,
Sight & Sound,
Fela Kuti,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Minutemen,
Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water.
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.