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 Norway and from Houston.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Holger Czukay 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 Deadbeat to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Terrestrial Tones. All the underground hits.
All MC5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nico record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dorothy Ashby record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Con Funk Shun,
Camouflage,
Trumans Water,
The Monks,
Skarface,
Sight & Sound,
The Shadows of Knight,
Lower 48,
Tubeway Army,
Todd Rundgren,
Todd Terry,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
David Axelrod,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Banda Bassotti,
Organ,
Wasted Youth,
The Doors,
Dorothy Ashby,
Faust,
The Toasters,
L. Decosne,
Moebius,
Scientists,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Outsiders,
Letta Mbulu,
The Pop Group,
Albert Ayler,
the Swans,
The Electric Prunes,
Deakin,
Jandek,
Al Stewart,
Bad Manners,
Camberwell Now,
Flash Fearless,
Animal Collective,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Minor Threat,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Stooges,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Beau Brummels,
Kayak,
The Red Krayola,
Nik Kershaw,
Crime,
The Gun Club,
Minnie Riperton,
Minutemen,
The Durutti Column,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Lee Hazlewood,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Joey Negro,
Matthew Halsall,
Arthur Verocai,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ken Boothe,
Glenn Branca,
Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol.
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.