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 Guyana and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 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 Sun City Girls 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 Funkadelic. All the underground hits.
All Deepchord tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jawbox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians 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?
D'Angelo,
the Bar-Kays,
Fugazi,
Jawbox,
Banda Bassotti,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Gories,
The Knickerbockers,
The Walker Brothers,
Tom Boy,
Model 500,
Warren Ellis,
The Monks,
Cluster,
Grey Daturas,
Alison Limerick,
The Divine Comedy,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Doors,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Laurel Aitken,
Faust,
Malaria!,
Traffic Nightmare,
Andrew Hill,
X-Ray Spex,
World's Most,
Swell Maps,
Kurtis Blow,
Siglo XX,
Sixth Finger,
The Smoke,
Gang of Four,
the Germs,
Sound Behaviour,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Ponytail,
Erykah Badu,
The Angels of Light,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Blake Baxter,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Martian,
Livin' Joy,
Michelle Simonal,
Bobby Byrd,
Urselle,
Blancmange,
Barbara Tucker,
Bob Dylan,
Brothers Johnson,
Erasure,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Country Teasers,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Althea and Donna,
Kaleidoscope,
Marvin Gaye,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
In Retrospect,
The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines.
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.