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 Mauritius and from Taipei.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 güiro 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 The Names to the grime 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 The Fuzztones. All the underground hits.
All EPMD tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Leaves 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roger Hodgson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Bob Dylan,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Kerrie Biddell,
Amazonics,
Yazoo,
Kenny Larkin,
Crash Course in Science,
Magma,
X-Ray Spex,
Tres Demented,
Subhumans,
David Axelrod,
Soul II Soul,
The Dirtbombs,
Jandek,
Fear,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Names,
The Angels of Light,
Cecil Taylor,
Connie Case,
Newcleus,
Susan Cadogan,
Unwound,
The Fall,
Camouflage,
Gang Starr,
Quando Quango,
Rhythm & Sound,
Harmonia,
Piero Umiliani,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Barrington Levy,
Josef K,
Con Funk Shun,
Kevin Saunderson,
Rufus Thomas,
The Victims,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Liliput,
Dawn Penn,
Nik Kershaw,
The Last Poets,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Smoke,
Glenn Branca,
Pulsallama,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
MC5,
Derrick Morgan,
The Pop Group,
Gastr Del Sol,
Albert Ayler,
Ralphi Rosario,
Lindisfarne,
Moebius,
Theoretical Girls,
Warsaw,
The Skatalites,
Derrick May,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.