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 Malawi and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Bremen.
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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 New Christs to the rap 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 Tropical Tobacco. All the underground hits.
All Gary Puckett & The Union Gap tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barrington Levy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
JFA,
Eurythmics,
Q and Not U,
The Selecter,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Barracudas,
Soul II Soul,
Wings,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Jawbox,
CMW,
Pharoah Sanders,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Chrome,
World's Most,
The Count Five,
Rakim,
The Saints,
Isaac Hayes,
The Beau Brummels,
Roxy Music,
Dual Sessions,
Pulsallama,
Bad Manners,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Man Eating Sloth,
The Remains,
Michelle Simonal,
Rotary Connection,
Flash Fearless,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kenny Larkin,
Minor Threat,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Intrusion,
Black Moon,
Eddi Front,
Brothers Johnson,
X-Ray Spex,
Black Flag,
The Birthday Party,
Spoonie Gee,
Lightning Bolt,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Fat Boys,
Motorama,
Althea and Donna,
Hashim,
Charles Mingus,
Maleditus Sound,
Iggy Pop,
The Kinks,
Barclay James Harvest,
Erykah Badu,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Slackers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
the Germs,
Drexciya,
Scientists, Scientists, Scientists, Scientists.
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.