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 Congo and from Manchester.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Nils Olav to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Motions. All the underground hits.
All The American Breed tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Boogie Down Productions,
Brothers Johnson,
Essential Logic,
Piero Umiliani,
Bootsy Collins,
Suburban Knight,
Fugazi,
Sexual Harrassment,
Electric Prunes,
the Slits,
The Mojo Men,
Excepter,
Depeche Mode,
The Vogues,
Ohio Players,
Eurythmics,
Bauhaus,
The Cowsills,
Eve St. Jones,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Fat Boys,
L. Decosne,
Siglo XX,
X-102,
Talk Talk,
The Moleskins,
Funkadelic,
Animal Collective,
Schoolly D,
Pussy Galore,
Laurel Aitken,
Chris & Cosey,
Gang Gang Dance,
Max Romeo,
Joyce Sims,
Ultravox,
Nick Fraelich,
Pantytec,
The American Breed,
These Immortal Souls,
Scott Walker,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Agent Orange,
Ossler,
Pagans,
Matthew Halsall,
Terry Callier,
Bluetip,
Funky Four + One,
X-Ray Spex,
Ralphi Rosario,
Derrick Morgan,
The Fire Engines,
Dead Boys,
Soulsonic Force,
Basic Channel,
Cecil Taylor,
Amon Düül II,
In Retrospect,
Blancmange,
The Tremeloes,
Ice-T,
Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown.
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.