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 Uganda and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 Lagos and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 arpeggiator 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 Make Up to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Rod Modell. All the underground hits.
All Al Stewart tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bauhaus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a EPMD record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fifty Foot Hose,
Oneida,
Kool Moe Dee,
Suburban Knight,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Cheater Slicks,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Kerri Chandler,
K-Klass,
John Coltrane,
Dark Day,
Mad Mike,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Gun Club,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Monks,
Throbbing Gristle,
This Heat,
Robert Hood,
Harry Pussy,
The Names,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Lee Hazlewood,
Terry Callier,
Boredoms,
Fear,
The Slackers,
Fat Boys,
Hot Snakes,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Five Americans,
the Germs,
Lightning Bolt,
Can,
U.S. Maple,
Glambeats Corp.,
DNA,
Tres Demented,
Amon Düül,
the Fania All-Stars,
Ponytail,
Erykah Badu,
Jeff Mills,
Jacques Brel,
Fatback Band,
Minnie Riperton,
T.S.O.L.,
Pagans,
Lower 48,
The Grass Roots,
FM Einheit,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Susan Cadogan,
Graham Central Station,
Stockholm Monsters,
Monks,
Das Ding,
Absolute Body Control,
the Association,
Scientists,
Mo-Dettes,
Unrelated Segments,
The Fugs,
Darondo, Darondo, Darondo, Darondo.
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.