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 United Kingdom 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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Edmonton.
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 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 Skriet to the rap 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 Lalann. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Letta Mbulu 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Men They Couldn't Hang record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül,
Q and Not U,
Lower 48,
the Bar-Kays,
The Happenings,
Glenn Branca,
Smog,
Mars,
Jeff Lynne,
F. McDonald,
X-Ray Spex,
Gregory Isaacs,
David McCallum,
Bill Wells,
Monks,
The Gories,
The Dead C,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Goldenarms,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Nas,
Aswad,
Marcia Griffiths,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
JFA,
The Electric Prunes,
Black Sheep,
Roger Hodgson,
Slave,
Alphaville,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lindisfarne,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Marvin Gaye,
Sarah Menescal,
T. Rex,
MDC,
Kevin Saunderson,
Kaleidoscope,
Basic Channel,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Hot Snakes,
The Fortunes,
Harmonia,
Television Personalities,
The Misunderstood,
Can,
Niagra,
L. Decosne,
Funkadelic,
Albert Ayler,
Gastr Del Sol,
Babytalk,
Anakelly,
Shoche,
The New Christs,
Bronski Beat,
Tres Demented,
Ituana, Ituana, Ituana, Ituana.
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.