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 Burundi and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 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 Brass Construction to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 The Names. All the underground hits.
All Sister Nancy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rufus Thomas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ash Ra Tempel,
Ultra Naté,
Terrestrial Tones,
Q65,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Litter,
Bootsy Collins,
Gastr Del Sol,
Freddie Wadling,
The Dirtbombs,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Happenings,
Crispy Ambulance,
the Sonics,
Vainqueur,
The Red Krayola,
a-ha,
Country Teasers,
Altered Images,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Pretty Things,
Dorothy Ashby,
Leonard Cohen,
Gang of Four,
In Retrospect,
Main Source,
Cal Tjader,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Suburban Knight,
Pantytec,
Harry Pussy,
Ponytail,
Curtis Mayfield,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Faust,
Half Japanese,
Sandy B,
Rosa Yemen,
Fat Boys,
Unwound,
Swans,
Flipper,
Agent Orange,
Nirvana,
Delta 5,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Bad Manners,
The Monochrome Set,
The Tremeloes,
The Durutti Column,
Scan 7,
Wally Richardson,
Matthew Halsall,
Liliput,
Panda Bear,
Avey Tare,
The Gap Band,
Roxy Music,
Roger Hodgson,
Iggy Pop,
Kas Product,
The Wake,
Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne.
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.