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 India and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
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 Black Pus to the rap 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Skaos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro 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?
The Pretty Things,
Zapp,
Peter and Kerry,
The Last Poets,
Fela Kuti,
Half Japanese,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Fluxion,
Juan Atkins,
Black Flag,
Warsaw,
The Blues Magoos,
Don Cherry,
Mission of Burma,
L. Decosne,
Icehouse,
Youth Brigade,
the Fania All-Stars,
Blossom Toes,
Leonard Cohen,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Avey Tare,
Make Up,
Grey Daturas,
James White and The Blacks,
The Blackbyrds,
EPMD,
Joyce Sims,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Swans,
Bluetip,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Amazonics,
Essential Logic,
La Düsseldorf,
Scientists,
Magazine,
This Heat,
Pagans,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ponytail,
Al Stewart,
Oblivians,
Bobby Byrd,
Black Moon,
Basic Channel,
David Axelrod,
Blancmange,
Ronnie Foster,
Urselle,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Supertramp,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Count Five,
Rufus Thomas,
These Immortal Souls,
DJ Sneak,
Funkadelic,
Eric Dolphy,
the Soft Cell,
The Dead C,
Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield, Curtis Mayfield.
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.