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 Kosovo and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 clarinet 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 Barbara Tucker to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Donny Hathaway. All the underground hits.
All Au Pairs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roxy Music record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 chamberlin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Toasters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sam Rivers,
Lakeside,
Country Teasers,
World's Most,
Aural Exciters,
Bush Tetras,
Aswad,
Bill Near,
The Remains,
Cal Tjader,
Soul II Soul,
The Doobie Brothers,
Mary Jane Girls,
Mantronix,
Neu!,
Robert Hood,
Godley & Creme,
Moby Grape,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Young Rascals,
Index,
The Star Department,
Motorama,
James White and The Blacks,
Essential Logic,
Slick Rick,
JFA,
Flipper,
The Fall,
The Zeros,
The Real Kids,
Jandek,
Janne Schatter,
Alison Limerick,
Laurel Aitken,
Henry Cow,
The Flesh Eaters,
OOIOO,
The Buckinghams,
Monks,
K-Klass,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Yazoo,
The Cowsills,
The Gap Band,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
cv313,
Danielle Patucci,
Aaron Thompson,
Joyce Sims,
The Alarm Clocks,
T.S.O.L.,
Spoonie Gee,
Average White Band,
Minutemen,
Erasure,
Aloha Tigers,
Terry Callier, Terry Callier, Terry Callier, Terry Callier.
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.