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 Oman and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro 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 The Happenings to the rock 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All Brick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every EPMD record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Nas,
The Gun Club,
Sparks,
The Blackbyrds,
The Tremeloes,
Sandy B,
The Grass Roots,
Charles Mingus,
This Heat,
H. Thieme,
Todd Rundgren,
The Techniques,
Anthony Braxton,
Ornette Coleman,
Boredoms,
Lightning Bolt,
Hasil Adkins,
Susan Cadogan,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Yazoo,
Zapp,
Jacques Brel,
Prince Buster,
The Count Five,
Subhumans,
The Victims,
Soul Sonic Force,
the Normal,
Kenny Larkin,
Supertramp,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Scrapy,
Goldenarms,
Blake Baxter,
cv313,
Jesper Dahlback,
Piero Umiliani,
L. Decosne,
Roy Ayers,
Camberwell Now,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Barry Ungar,
Fear,
Basic Channel,
Joyce Sims,
Ohio Players,
Steve Hackett,
Freddie Wadling,
Terrestrial Tones,
Brand Nubian,
Roxette,
Minnie Riperton,
Thee Headcoats,
Deadbeat,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Real Kids,
Josef K,
Wasted Youth,
Bronski Beat,
Cluster,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.