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 Zambia and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 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 Sunsets and Hearts to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Invisible. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Saints record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sarah Menescal,
Soul II Soul,
Jeru the Damaja,
Mars,
Boz Scaggs,
Sparks,
Ken Boothe,
Josef K,
Jeff Lynne,
Man Eating Sloth,
Brass Construction,
Sun Ra,
The Red Krayola,
Jacob Miller,
Rakim,
Eddi Front,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Shadows of Knight,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Von Mondo,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Cymande,
Morten Harket,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Kurtis Blow,
Pharoah Sanders,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
New Age Steppers,
Trumans Water,
Flamin' Groovies,
Swell Maps,
Radiopuhelimet,
Minnie Riperton,
Sound Behaviour,
Robert Görl,
The Last Poets,
B.T. Express,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Metal Thangz,
The Cowsills,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Golliwogs,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Interpol,
John Cale,
Moebius,
Agitation Free,
Half Japanese,
The Walker Brothers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
48th St. Collective,
The Black Dice,
cv313,
Bush Tetras,
Pierre Henry,
Cabaret Voltaire,
China Crisis,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Radiohead,
Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade.
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.