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 Solomon Islands and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Bob Dylan to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lee Hazlewood. All the underground hits.
All Slick Rick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Little Man,
Isaac Hayes,
The Smiths,
L. Decosne,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Mark Hollis,
Gang Starr,
Sun Ra,
The Fuzztones,
Soulsonic Force,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Rod Modell,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Lou Christie,
New Order,
Scrapy,
Outsiders,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gong,
Susan Cadogan,
Siglo XX,
Los Fastidios,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Brand Nubian,
Lakeside,
Ten City,
Television,
Shoche,
Kool Moe Dee,
Excepter,
Youth Brigade,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The American Breed,
Big Daddy Kane,
Audionom,
Stetsasonic,
Intrusion,
Das Ding,
Todd Rundgren,
Pussy Galore,
Eurythmics,
John Lydon,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Marc Almond,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Mad Mike,
Reuben Wilson,
Kurtis Blow,
Japan,
Bobby Byrd,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Panda Bear,
Second Layer,
Sarah Menescal,
Stockholm Monsters,
the Germs,
Robert Wyatt,
Graham Central Station,
Pierre Henry,
Marine Girls,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds.
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.