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 Rwanda and from Beijing.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Soft Cell to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Lou Reed & John Cale. All the underground hits.
All Erykah Badu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deakin 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roger Hodgson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fatback Band,
Roy Ayers,
Fluxion,
Franke,
Scrapy,
New York Dolls,
Nas,
The Slits,
It's A Beautiful Day,
FM Einheit,
The Fire Engines,
Black Pus,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Fuzztones,
Monolake,
Whodini,
Average White Band,
Jandek,
The Invisible,
The Angels of Light,
Cluster,
La Düsseldorf,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Moody Blues,
Lungfish,
The Pop Group,
Rufus Thomas,
Isaac Hayes,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Gabor Szabo,
Audionom,
Cheater Slicks,
Yazoo,
Glenn Branca,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Alarm Clocks,
Monks,
KRS-One,
Rakim,
Blossom Toes,
Ultra Naté,
Fela Kuti,
Section 25,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Erykah Badu,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Nico,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Schoolly D,
Grandmaster Flash,
Public Image Ltd.,
Tomorrow,
Mission of Burma,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Sandy B,
The Gun Club,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.