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 Iran and from Copenhagen.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Bar-Kays to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All Spoonie Gee tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacob Miller record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reagan Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
Buzzcocks,
Mission of Burma,
Lungfish,
Josef K,
The Vogues,
The Beau Brummels,
Flamin' Groovies,
Metal Thangz,
Niagra,
the Swans,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lalo Schifrin,
Dennis Brown,
Lalann,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Human League,
Fugazi,
The Five Americans,
Bush Tetras,
Sonny Sharrock,
Jesper Dahlback,
Easy Going,
Pole,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Drive Like Jehu,
B.T. Express,
Radio Birdman,
Ice-T,
Fat Boys,
Scratch Acid,
Audionom,
Brass Construction,
Black Bananas,
Urselle,
Rekid,
Radiohead,
Morten Harket,
The Kinks,
Bobby Byrd,
Ornette Coleman,
Cecil Taylor,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Smiths,
DNA,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Desert Stars,
The Skatalites,
Avey Tare,
Jeff Lynne,
The Toasters,
Zapp,
Blake Baxter,
Sparks,
Tubeway Army,
10cc,
Silicon Teens,
John Coltrane,
the Association,
Kayak,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
In Retrospect,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Cybotron,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.