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 India and from Hong Kong.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Eddi Front to the funk 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 Alphaville. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits 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 güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deadbeat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
Lyres,
Crime,
Silicon Teens,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Y Pants,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Gastr Del Sol,
Hashim,
Swell Maps,
The Knickerbockers,
Tres Demented,
Todd Rundgren,
Loose Ends,
X-Ray Spex,
Colin Newman,
Marcia Griffiths,
Warren Ellis,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Warsaw,
Angry Samoans,
The Sound,
Swans,
Amazonics,
Toni Rubio,
Charles Mingus,
Urselle,
In Retrospect,
Steve Hackett,
The Index,
A Certain Ratio,
Ultimate Spinach,
Marmalade,
Sarah Menescal,
ABC,
The Star Department,
Magma,
Sparks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Sun City Girls,
CMW,
The Monks,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fugazi,
Yellowson,
The Evens,
Model 500,
The Divine Comedy,
Man Parrish,
ABBA,
China Crisis,
The Tremeloes,
OOIOO,
The Shadows of Knight,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Popol Vuh,
The Count Five,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Kurtis Blow,
Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside.
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.