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 Kenya and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the güiro 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 crunk 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 Fugazi. All the underground hits.
All Sexual Harrassment tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 theremin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Anthony Braxton record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Archie Shepp,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Blackbyrds,
Oneida,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Mark Hollis,
10cc,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Junior Murvin,
The Cowsills,
Man Eating Sloth,
Outsiders,
Television Personalities,
Mars,
Excepter,
Delta 5,
Main Source,
Traffic Nightmare,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Stiv Bators,
The Monks,
Essential Logic,
MC5,
AZ,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Agitation Free,
Das Ding,
The Neon Judgement,
Joensuu 1685,
Sandy B,
Deadbeat,
Country Teasers,
Tres Demented,
Robert Hood,
The Count Five,
The Golliwogs,
Y Pants,
Rufus Thomas,
Dark Day,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Johnny Osbourne,
Henry Cow,
Don Cherry,
John Lydon,
Cheater Slicks,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Black Moon,
Rotary Connection,
Godley & Creme,
kango's stein massive,
Gang of Four,
Slick Rick,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ultimate Spinach,
Quando Quango,
Rites of Spring,
Patti Smith,
Leonard Cohen,
Brick,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Walker Brothers,
The Human League, The Human League, The Human League, The Human League.
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.