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 Paraguay and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 clarinet 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 Yusef Lateef to the jazz 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 Jacques Brel. All the underground hits.
All Pierre Henry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smoke 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Doors record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sex Pistols,
the Normal,
Soft Machine,
Newcleus,
Faust,
Darondo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Skatalites,
Godley & Creme,
Spoonie Gee,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Nation of Ulysses,
The J.B.'s,
Monks,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Detroit Cobras,
Warsaw,
Erykah Badu,
Thee Headcoats,
Aloha Tigers,
Jeff Mills,
Oblivians,
Das Ding,
Interpol,
Eric Dolphy,
Pet Shop Boys,
Second Layer,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Danielle Patucci,
Severed Heads,
Scott Walker,
Tubeway Army,
Anthony Braxton,
Shoche,
The Techniques,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jandek,
In Retrospect,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Mandrill,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Erasure,
Pantaleimon,
Barrington Levy,
Colin Newman,
Reagan Youth,
The Slackers,
Intrusion,
The Gun Club,
Fugazi,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Bang On A Can,
Animal Collective,
Pantytec,
Sugar Minott,
Jimmy McGriff,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Deadbeat,
Gregory Isaacs,
Nik Kershaw,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Blackbyrds,
The Standells, The Standells, The Standells, The Standells.
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.