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 Peru and from Jakarta.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Max Romeo to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Faust. All the underground hits.
All The Monks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every China Crisis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ohio Players record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Unrelated Segments,
Josef K,
Bronski Beat,
New Order,
UT,
Robert Görl,
The Smoke,
Agent Orange,
Adolescents,
Underground Resistance,
Charles Mingus,
Wire,
Negative Approach,
Kas Product,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Five Americans,
Bush Tetras,
Swell Maps,
Godley & Creme,
Camberwell Now,
Lee Hazlewood,
Absolute Body Control,
Roxette,
Animal Collective,
Bizarre Inc.,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Human League,
Scientists,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Mandrill,
Joe Finger,
The Golliwogs,
Black Moon,
The Gladiators,
The Cramps,
Arcadia,
Saccharine Trust,
Porter Ricks,
David Axelrod,
Yusef Lateef,
Pantytec,
David McCallum,
Parry Music,
The Busters,
Wolf Eyes,
Audionom,
Neu!,
Eurythmics,
Smog,
The Zeros,
Crispy Ambulance,
Archie Shepp,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Steve Hackett,
The Grass Roots,
Monolake,
Lungfish,
Lou Christie,
Erykah Badu,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Suburban Knight,
Supertramp,
Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army.
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.