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 Bhutan and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Mighty Diamonds to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Oblivians tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 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 Lou Christie record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
John Holt,
Skaos,
Depeche Mode,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Tres Demented,
The Cure,
Banda Bassotti,
Pulsallama,
Quantec,
Silicon Teens,
Harpers Bizarre,
Infiniti,
Soul II Soul,
The Grass Roots,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Accadde A,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Echospace,
Pierre Henry,
F. McDonald,
Camouflage,
Gang Starr,
Circle Jerks,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Young Marble Giants,
Smog,
Robert Görl,
Bush Tetras,
Traffic Nightmare,
Youth Brigade,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Motions,
The Alarm Clocks,
cv313,
Eli Mardock,
Arcadia,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Names,
Ossler,
Marine Girls,
Qualms,
Goldenarms,
Sixth Finger,
Man Eating Sloth,
James White and The Blacks,
The Seeds,
Hoover,
Second Layer,
Morten Harket,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Au Pairs,
Wings,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Kaleidoscope,
The Mojo Men,
Throbbing Gristle,
10cc,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Warsaw,
Aswad, Aswad, Aswad, Aswad.
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.