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 El Salvador and from Lagos.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the marimba 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 Sam Rivers to the techno 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 The Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All Reuben Wilson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glambeats Corp. record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harpers Bizarre record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
Television,
Fugazi,
Gong,
Delta 5,
Anakelly,
Surgeon,
The Blackbyrds,
Josef K,
The Pop Group,
Wasted Youth,
Kenny Larkin,
Depeche Mode,
Charles Mingus,
Ponytail,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Vogues,
Mandrill,
The Monochrome Set,
Pagans,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Mars,
U.S. Maple,
Moss Icon,
The Smiths,
Brass Construction,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Byron Stingily,
Slick Rick,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Ornette Coleman,
Nation of Ulysses,
E-Dancer,
Fear,
The Alarm Clocks,
Lou Christie,
Youth Brigade,
Rapeman,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Kaleidoscope,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Todd Terry,
Minor Threat,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Shadows of Knight,
Tomorrow,
Technova,
Isaac Hayes,
Dorothy Ashby,
Tears for Fears,
Ronnie Foster,
Con Funk Shun,
The Gap Band,
Bill Wells,
The Move,
Frankie Knuckles,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Motorama,
Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments.
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.