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 Laos and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 rhodes 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 Crooked Eye to the punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Moss Icon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joey Negro record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 rhodes and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharoah Sanders,
Livin' Joy,
The Last Poets,
The Tremeloes,
Marc Almond,
Girls At Our Best!,
Visage,
Cluster,
Ultravox,
R.M.O.,
The Martian,
Skarface,
Los Fastidios,
Moss Icon,
Bauhaus,
Circle Jerks,
Blossom Toes,
James Chance & The Contortions,
10cc,
Skriet,
MC5,
Sparks,
Hot Snakes,
Spandau Ballet,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Y Pants,
Sex Pistols,
Ornette Coleman,
The Fire Engines,
the Slits,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Sound,
Infiniti,
David Bowie,
Kenny Larkin,
JFA,
Bill Wells,
Supertramp,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sister Nancy,
Bootsy Collins,
Terrestrial Tones,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Second Layer,
Brick,
The Barracudas,
Gang Starr,
Gil Scott Heron,
Leonard Cohen,
The Fugs,
Deadbeat,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Robert Hood,
John Holt,
Neil Young,
Howard Jones,
Danielle Patucci,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.