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 Fiji and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Wire to the disco 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 June Days. All the underground hits.
All David Axelrod tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hoover 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Copeland record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gregory Isaacs,
Fear,
Eric Copeland,
The Sonics,
Funky Four + One,
Whodini,
Mo-Dettes,
Model 500,
Bluetip,
The Blackbyrds,
Ice-T,
The Grass Roots,
Avey Tare,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Reuben Wilson,
Oneida,
The Five Americans,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
T.S.O.L.,
Sun Ra,
Severed Heads,
Cymande,
Black Flag,
the Sonics,
The Slits,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Terry Callier,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pagans,
Kas Product,
48th St. Collective,
Nirvana,
Lyres,
Crispian St. Peters,
FM Einheit,
The Dave Clark Five,
Urselle,
Yellowson,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Stetsasonic,
Idris Muhammad,
Warren Ellis,
Al Stewart,
The Martian,
Juan Atkins,
The Alarm Clocks,
Cecil Taylor,
Rapeman,
ABC,
Boogie Down Productions,
Smog,
Rekid,
Tres Demented,
Prince Buster,
Althea and Donna,
Minnie Riperton,
Maleditus Sound,
Amon Düül,
Skaos,
Eden Ahbez,
Soul Sonic Force, Soul Sonic Force, Soul Sonic Force, Soul Sonic Force.
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.