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 China and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide show in New York.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 chamberlin 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 The Pretty Things to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Lafayette Afro Rock Band. All the underground hits.
All Lebanon Hanover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nation of Ulysses 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Con Funk Shun,
Ituana,
Neu!,
Section 25,
Big Daddy Kane,
Pulsallama,
Eddi Front,
The Standells,
DJ Sneak,
EPMD,
Pylon,
Joe Smooth,
Kerrie Biddell,
Iggy Pop,
Fela Kuti,
Alton Ellis,
Black Pus,
Ten City,
Young Marble Giants,
Symarip,
The Gun Club,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Idris Muhammad,
The Wake,
The Happenings,
Pere Ubu,
The Fugs,
Banda Bassotti,
Youth Brigade,
Rites of Spring,
Kayak,
Quantec,
These Immortal Souls,
Fad Gadget,
Aaron Thompson,
Alphaville,
Dual Sessions,
Unwound,
Absolute Body Control,
Throbbing Gristle,
Arthur Verocai,
The Smiths,
Arab on Radar,
Black Moon,
Amazonics,
Kool Moe Dee,
Make Up,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Sarah Menescal,
the Swans,
Von Mondo,
The Last Poets,
Mantronix,
Hardrive,
Byron Stingily,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Knickerbockers,
The Golliwogs,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sandy B,
Bauhaus,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.