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 South Africa and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Last Poets to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Man Parrish. All the underground hits.
All Flipper tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultramagnetic MC's record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quadrant,
Pantaleimon,
Don Cherry,
Technova,
Lou Christie,
Zero Boys,
Easy Going,
June of 44,
Negative Approach,
Bad Manners,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Thee Headcoats,
Soft Cell,
JFA,
Fear,
The Cure,
Animal Collective,
Crispian St. Peters,
Young Marble Giants,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Max Romeo,
Junior Murvin,
Hoover,
Supertramp,
Unwound,
Scratch Acid,
The Shadows of Knight,
Man Eating Sloth,
Popol Vuh,
Pharoah Sanders,
Second Layer,
Eric Dolphy,
The Black Dice,
Minor Threat,
Inner City,
Nik Kershaw,
The Walker Brothers,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tubeway Army,
Altered Images,
Mantronix,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Q and Not U,
The Motions,
Bobby Sherman,
Magma,
Kenny Larkin,
The Gap Band,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sparks,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
New Order,
Masters at Work,
Skaos,
Jacques Brel,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Chris Corsano,
the Slits,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Lightning Bolt,
Tropical Tobacco,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed.
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.