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 Norway and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Raincoats to the techno 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 Letta Mbulu. All the underground hits.
All The Gladiators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Grass Roots 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ornette Coleman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rotary Connection,
Sandy B,
Henry Cow,
Barrington Levy,
Negative Approach,
Suicide,
Sun Ra,
Y Pants,
Bill Near,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
New York Dolls,
The Moleskins,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Throbbing Gristle,
Boogie Down Productions,
MC5,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Alarm Clocks,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Altered Images,
Ossler,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
FM Einheit,
Nick Fraelich,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Gories,
Funkadelic,
The Dave Clark Five,
UT,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Arthur Verocai,
In Retrospect,
Bob Dylan,
OOIOO,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Jeff Lynne,
The Misunderstood,
Ultra Naté,
Tim Buckley,
The Young Rascals,
The Doors,
the Germs,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Mars,
Fluxion,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Maleditus Sound,
Derrick May,
Nirvana,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Monks,
The Barracudas,
Bootsy Collins,
Sam Rivers,
The Tremeloes,
Sällskapet,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Nils Olav,
the Soft Cell,
Audionom,
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow.
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.