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 Chile and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Youth Brigade to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Cecil Taylor. All the underground hits.
All Black Moon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DJ Sneak record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mo-Dettes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rosa Yemen,
Lou Christie,
Charles Mingus,
Joe Finger,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Robert Hood,
The Fugs,
Crooked Eye,
Inner City,
Banda Bassotti,
Sonic Youth,
Grandmaster Flash,
Eddi Front,
Dennis Brown,
Aural Exciters,
Aaron Thompson,
Underground Resistance,
The Music Machine,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Yusef Lateef,
Ponytail,
Black Pus,
Bob Dylan,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Erasure,
Agent Orange,
Pantaleimon,
Gerry Rafferty,
Main Source,
Von Mondo,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Arthur Verocai,
Mad Mike,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Electric Prunes,
Gastr Del Sol,
Fat Boys,
Minny Pops,
Pere Ubu,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Slave,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Don Cherry,
Swell Maps,
Flash Fearless,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Heaven 17,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Flipper,
Eden Ahbez,
T. Rex,
Soulsonic Force,
The Five Americans,
Skaos,
Tommy Roe,
Organ,
Brand Nubian,
The Count Five,
Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.
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.