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 Liberia and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna 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 Los Fastidios to the dance 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 Ultra Naté. All the underground hits.
All Sexual Harrassment tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Jesus and Mary Chain 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sunsets and Hearts record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tom Boy,
Saccharine Trust,
Urselle,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Fugazi,
Harmonia,
Das Ding,
Eric Dolphy,
Lebanon Hanover,
Index,
Bobby Womack,
Minor Threat,
The Slits,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Second Layer,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lakeside,
Soft Machine,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
B.T. Express,
Rosa Yemen,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Depeche Mode,
Connie Case,
The Pop Group,
OOIOO,
Brass Construction,
Black Pus,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Searchers,
Stockholm Monsters,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Eric Copeland,
Piero Umiliani,
X-101,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Danielle Patucci,
The Gap Band,
Johnny Osbourne,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Model 500,
Marvin Gaye,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Sandy B,
Man Parrish,
David McCallum,
The Saints,
Ludus,
Alison Limerick,
Liliput,
Half Japanese,
Accadde A,
Joy Division,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Blackbyrds,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Vladislav Delay,
FM Einheit,
Heaven 17,
The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks.
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.