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 Vietnam and from Mumbai.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud to the dance kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Crispy Ambulance. All the underground hits.
All Magazine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eurythmics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jimmy McGriff,
Gong,
Donny Hathaway,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Stooges,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Techniques,
Panda Bear,
The Blackbyrds,
Erasure,
China Crisis,
Mars,
David McCallum,
Neu!,
Eurythmics,
Cheater Slicks,
Eric Dolphy,
Curtis Mayfield,
Newcleus,
Gabor Szabo,
Alice Coltrane,
Harmonia,
Sällskapet,
June Days,
Ornette Coleman,
Surgeon,
Simply Red,
ABBA,
The New Christs,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Quadrant,
The Fortunes,
Ludus,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Sam Rivers,
Amon Düül,
Neil Young,
Con Funk Shun,
Darondo,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Big Daddy Kane,
Camouflage,
Pierre Henry,
Wire,
The Star Department,
Sarah Menescal,
David Bowie,
Radiohead,
Graham Central Station,
Easy Going,
F. McDonald,
The Misunderstood,
OOIOO,
Unwound,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Arthur Verocai,
Cal Tjader,
Warsaw,
Icehouse,
Dark Day,
Dawn Penn,
Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza.
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.