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 New Zealand and from Jakarta.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Josef K to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Gories. All the underground hits.
All Joe Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vaughan Mason & Crew record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marcia Griffiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harmonia,
Darondo,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Scrapy,
Swell Maps,
Glenn Branca,
the Sonics,
Mo-Dettes,
Laurel Aitken,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Buzzcocks,
Donald Byrd,
The Raincoats,
James White and The Blacks,
Surgeon,
Iggy Pop,
Metal Thangz,
Byron Stingily,
Clear Light,
Suicide,
the Slits,
Ludus,
Robert Hood,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Gladiators,
Eve St. Jones,
The Fire Engines,
Junior Murvin,
Black Moon,
Whodini,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Organ,
Nirvana,
Rekid,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Misunderstood,
Desert Stars,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Public Image Ltd.,
Jeff Lynne,
Pussy Galore,
The Monks,
Bob Dylan,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Dawn Penn,
Patti Smith,
Alton Ellis,
Essential Logic,
Max Romeo,
Drexciya,
The Martian,
Schoolly D,
Rhythm & Sound,
China Crisis,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Red Krayola,
Massinfluence,
Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment.
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.