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 Suriname and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the marimba 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 Groovy Waters to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Walker Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Bill Near tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quadrant 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 a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Liaisons Dangereuses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
JFA,
China Crisis,
Gregory Isaacs,
Cymande,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
8 Eyed Spy,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bobby Womack,
Bobby Byrd,
Juan Atkins,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Fugs,
Tropical Tobacco,
Patti Smith,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
X-102,
Terrestrial Tones,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Dennis Brown,
Duran Duran,
Subhumans,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Cal Tjader,
Erasure,
Maleditus Sound,
Andrew Hill,
Josef K,
Gang Gang Dance,
Wings,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
World's Most,
K-Klass,
Anthony Braxton,
Derrick Morgan,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Country Joe & The Fish,
Roy Ayers,
Ohio Players,
48th St. Collective,
Silicon Teens,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Sound,
Yellowson,
Soft Cell,
The Dead C,
Rod Modell,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Moody Blues,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Alarm Clocks,
Gil Scott Heron,
Sparks,
LL Cool J,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.