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 Kuwait and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the 808 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 Ultra Naté to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 China Crisis. All the underground hits.
All Oppenheimer Analysis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ituana record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Altered Images,
Brothers Johnson,
Beasts of Bourbon,
KRS-One,
Y Pants,
Eddi Front,
Big Daddy Kane,
Curtis Mayfield,
Robert Wyatt,
The Gladiators,
The Five Americans,
Inner City,
Peter and Kerry,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Danielle Patucci,
The Misunderstood,
Magazine,
Eurythmics,
the Normal,
Eric B and Rakim,
In Retrospect,
Crime,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
One Last Wish,
Aloha Tigers,
the Germs,
The Blackbyrds,
X-Ray Spex,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sexual Harrassment,
Average White Band,
The Saints,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Joy Division,
Brand Nubian,
The Slits,
The Velvet Underground,
China Crisis,
New Order,
Joe Smooth,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Joey Negro,
Public Enemy,
The Sound,
The Moleskins,
Radiopuhelimet,
Royal Trux,
X-102,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Mark Hollis,
Smog,
Traffic Nightmare,
Metal Thangz,
48th St. Collective,
Fluxion,
Crash Course in Science,
The Moody Blues,
Loose Ends,
Aaron Thompson,
The Doors, The Doors, The Doors, The Doors.
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.