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 Zambia and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Public Enemy to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Sonic Youth. All the underground hits.
All Sly & The Family Stone tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kayak 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Coltrane record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rapeman,
Scratch Acid,
Magazine,
Peter & Gordon,
Kayak,
Cecil Taylor,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Whodini,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Aural Exciters,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Bush Tetras,
Pulsallama,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Freddie Wadling,
ABC,
Ludus,
The Skatalites,
Funky Four + One,
Anakelly,
MC5,
Rites of Spring,
the Swans,
June Days,
Shuggie Otis,
Sandy B,
Ornette Coleman,
The J.B.'s,
OOIOO,
Newcleus,
Delon & Dalcan,
Black Flag,
Amon Düül II,
The Human League,
Tom Boy,
The Seeds,
The Monks,
Simply Red,
Vladislav Delay,
Camouflage,
Kerri Chandler,
Terry Callier,
Blancmange,
Massinfluence,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Moody Blues,
Johnny Clarke,
Cluster,
Subhumans,
Max Romeo,
Vainqueur,
Toni Rubio,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lyres,
Mr. Review,
Altered Images,
Absolute Body Control,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Soul II Soul,
La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf.
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.