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 Comoros and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Vladislav Delay to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 the Swans. All the underground hits.
All Delta 5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minny Pops record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 an organ and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantaleimon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lightning Bolt,
Crispy Ambulance,
Pagans,
The Shadows of Knight,
Nils Olav,
Darondo,
Unrelated Segments,
Anthony Braxton,
The Grass Roots,
Young Marble Giants,
Brand Nubian,
Judy Mowatt,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Unwound,
Pere Ubu,
Cameo,
The Searchers,
Don Cherry,
Kool Moe Dee,
a-ha,
The Detroit Cobras,
Dawn Penn,
MDC,
The Gladiators,
Toni Rubio,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Eli Mardock,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Brothers Johnson,
The Pretty Things,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Tropical Tobacco,
Pierre Henry,
Glambeats Corp.,
Excepter,
Vainqueur,
Visage,
Tim Buckley,
Essential Logic,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Jacques Brel,
Eve St. Jones,
Alice Coltrane,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Peter and Kerry,
Roxette,
The Zeros,
Marshall Jefferson,
Aswad,
Marcia Griffiths,
Sällskapet,
The Tremeloes,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
John Foxx,
Ken Boothe,
Mo-Dettes,
Scratch Acid,
Bobby Womack,
Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya.
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.