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 Senegal and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Animal Collective to the grunge 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 Monks. All the underground hits.
All Symarip tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Sonics record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Last Poets,
The Sonics,
Leonard Cohen,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cecil Taylor,
Echospace,
Sun Ra,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sonic Youth,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ultravox,
The Cramps,
The Beau Brummels,
Delon & Dalcan,
Crispy Ambulance,
Ituana,
Davy DMX,
Byron Stingily,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Model 500,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Marine Girls,
Sparks,
Rapeman,
Graham Central Station,
the Soft Cell,
Terry Callier,
The Mighty Diamonds,
June of 44,
The Fire Engines,
Monolake,
Youth Brigade,
Dorothy Ashby,
Slave,
the Sonics,
Ludus,
The Smoke,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
the Germs,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
the Normal,
Amon Düül II,
B.T. Express,
The American Breed,
Angry Samoans,
Accadde A,
the Swans,
PIL,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Television,
Altered Images,
Sexual Harrassment,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Patti Smith,
Joe Finger,
Stereo Dub,
Vladislav Delay,
KRS-One,
Ponytail,
Tubeway Army,
Supertramp, Supertramp, Supertramp, Supertramp.
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.