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 Yemen and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Grass Roots. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Electric Light Orchestra,
Steve Hackett,
Reagan Youth,
Heaven 17,
Flipper,
Ituana,
Boogie Down Productions,
Leonard Cohen,
Fela Kuti,
The Music Machine,
Visage,
The Flesh Eaters,
Minutemen,
Graham Central Station,
The Victims,
Blancmange,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Rapeman,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sound Behaviour,
The Fortunes,
Gong,
The Five Americans,
Vladislav Delay,
Panda Bear,
The Barracudas,
DJ Sneak,
the Slits,
Agent Orange,
Iggy Pop,
Tubeway Army,
Second Layer,
Eden Ahbez,
The New Christs,
Aswad,
The Real Kids,
John Lydon,
A Certain Ratio,
Traffic Nightmare,
Schoolly D,
F. McDonald,
The Human League,
Funky Four + One,
Sarah Menescal,
X-Ray Spex,
June of 44,
Delon & Dalcan,
Susan Cadogan,
Pierre Henry,
Fluxion,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sex Pistols,
Guru Guru,
The Fall,
Idris Muhammad,
Lee Hazlewood,
Bush Tetras,
Motorama,
Flash Fearless,
Sugar Minott,
Goldenarms,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.