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 Somalia 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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Yaz to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Kayak tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-Ray Spex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Negative Approach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alphaville,
Fugazi,
The Happenings,
Au Pairs,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Vainqueur,
Freddie Wadling,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Fear,
Terry Callier,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Move,
Derrick Morgan,
The Offenders,
Deadbeat,
Junior Murvin,
Donny Hathaway,
Parry Music,
Basic Channel,
Scion,
Absolute Body Control,
Stockholm Monsters,
Lower 48,
Scott Walker,
Bush Tetras,
Lalo Schifrin,
Panda Bear,
Colin Newman,
The Moody Blues,
Marcia Griffiths,
Slave,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Mojo Men,
a-ha,
The Last Poets,
David McCallum,
Monolake,
Connie Case,
10cc,
Pet Shop Boys,
Minny Pops,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Slackers,
Alison Limerick,
Marc Almond,
D'Angelo,
Mad Mike,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Wire,
Y Pants,
Eli Mardock,
The United States of America,
Gichy Dan,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Adolescents,
Inner City,
Warren Ellis,
Thompson Twins,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.