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 Micronesia and from Mumbai.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Pop Group. All the underground hits.
All Barbara Tucker tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Toni Rubio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 snare and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Juan Atkins,
Sexual Harrassment,
Donald Byrd,
Michelle Simonal,
MDC,
Reuben Wilson,
Mantronix,
La Düsseldorf,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Rapeman,
Judy Mowatt,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Zapp,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Clear Light,
Alice Coltrane,
Easy Going,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
June Days,
In Retrospect,
E-Dancer,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Piero Umiliani,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Dirtbombs,
Interpol,
the Sonics,
T.S.O.L.,
Sandy B,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Mark Hollis,
The Raincoats,
Cluster,
Black Pus,
Davy DMX,
Pierre Henry,
The Flesh Eaters,
Marvin Gaye,
Harmonia,
Ken Boothe,
Rufus Thomas,
Ultra Naté,
The Alarm Clocks,
Pere Ubu,
Lakeside,
Jandek,
Essential Logic,
Throbbing Gristle,
Dorothy Ashby,
Joey Negro,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Flash Fearless,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Fad Gadget,
Urselle,
Scratch Acid,
Hashim,
Suicide,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Robert Wyatt,
Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills.
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.