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 Samoa and from Tehran.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Wolf Eyes to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Crispy Ambulance. All the underground hits.
All Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Bananas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fugs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mighty Diamonds,
Smog,
Basic Channel,
Roxette,
Icehouse,
Fluxion,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Silicon Teens,
In Retrospect,
Half Japanese,
Dennis Brown,
Grandmaster Flash,
Isaac Hayes,
Babytalk,
Symarip,
Absolute Body Control,
Suburban Knight,
Duran Duran,
The Human League,
Section 25,
Althea and Donna,
Shoche,
Colin Newman,
Niagra,
Archie Shepp,
Index,
the Sonics,
The United States of America,
Quando Quango,
Electric Prunes,
The Happenings,
Joyce Sims,
Urselle,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sexual Harrassment,
8 Eyed Spy,
Todd Rundgren,
Mission of Burma,
The Last Poets,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
China Crisis,
Ludus,
Depeche Mode,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Pussy Galore,
Audionom,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Brand Nubian,
U.S. Maple,
Soft Cell,
Suicide,
Crime,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Pantaleimon,
Malaria!,
Ronan,
The Searchers,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Joy Division,
Alice Coltrane,
Eurythmics,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Star Department, The Star Department, The Star Department, The Star Department.
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.