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 Albania and from Cairo.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Kool Moe Dee to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Severed Heads tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Human League record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 güiro 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 theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minutemen,
Nick Fraelich,
Soft Machine,
Metal Thangz,
Electric Prunes,
Symarip,
The Angels of Light,
Bang On A Can,
Faust,
Funkadelic,
Theoretical Girls,
Lalo Schifrin,
Graham Central Station,
Kas Product,
Crispy Ambulance,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Skatalites,
Don Cherry,
Eli Mardock,
Khruangbin,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Albert Ayler,
Marshall Jefferson,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Skaos,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Zeros,
Suicide,
Mission of Burma,
Groovy Waters,
Altered Images,
The Names,
Dorothy Ashby,
Warsaw,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Last Poets,
Erykah Badu,
Bobby Byrd,
The Slackers,
The Knickerbockers,
Gong,
Brass Construction,
Echospace,
Brand Nubian,
Oneida,
Rosa Yemen,
The Selecter,
Barry Ungar,
X-101,
Brick,
Babytalk,
U.S. Maple,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Amon Düül II,
Grey Daturas,
Camberwell Now,
Eurythmics,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Man Eating Sloth,
Alison Limerick,
Nirvana,
Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins.
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.