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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
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 Section 25 to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young & Crazy Horse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rapeman 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Severed Heads record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Model 500,
Nick Fraelich,
Maurizio,
Todd Rundgren,
Derrick Morgan,
Patti Smith,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Doors,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The New Christs,
Nirvana,
Roy Ayers,
Altered Images,
Bush Tetras,
Index,
Ronnie Foster,
Fluxion,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Saints,
Radiohead,
Charles Mingus,
Reagan Youth,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Deadbeat,
The Victims,
Eli Mardock,
Maleditus Sound,
This Heat,
Bobby Womack,
Kurtis Blow,
Aural Exciters,
Tubeway Army,
Mad Mike,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Marvin Gaye,
Nation of Ulysses,
Arab on Radar,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Ultravox,
Barrington Levy,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Searchers,
Intrusion,
Flipper,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eric B and Rakim,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ponytail,
Joensuu 1685,
Malaria!,
Barry Ungar,
The Evens,
Tears for Fears,
The Neon Judgement,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Robert Wyatt,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Names, The Names, The Names, The Names.
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.