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 Zimbabwe 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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 David Bowie 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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Louis and Bebe Barron. All the underground hits.
All Aural Exciters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultravox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Wells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Cure,
Scan 7,
Circle Jerks,
Wings,
The Saints,
Quadrant,
The Moleskins,
Ice-T,
Big Daddy Kane,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Velvet Underground,
Black Flag,
Urselle,
The Raincoats,
Excepter,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Last Poets,
PIL,
Fugazi,
Oblivians,
Lee Hazlewood,
Kaleidoscope,
In Retrospect,
Easy Going,
Pet Shop Boys,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Slick Rick,
Glenn Branca,
The Stooges,
The Buckinghams,
The Walker Brothers,
Soft Machine,
Banda Bassotti,
Gang Gang Dance,
The New Christs,
Jawbox,
Eden Ahbez,
Von Mondo,
Gang Green,
Qualms,
Scrapy,
Barclay James Harvest,
Brothers Johnson,
The Moody Blues,
Rotary Connection,
The Red Krayola,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Absolute Body Control,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Alice Coltrane,
Marc Almond,
Rufus Thomas,
the Sonics,
The Motions,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Bobby Sherman,
Don Cherry,
The Fortunes,
Malaria!,
Mo-Dettes,
World's Most, World's Most, World's Most, World's Most.
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.