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 Morocco and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 Delhi and Calgary.
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 arpeggiator 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 The Electric Prunes to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Cheater Slicks. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young & Crazy Horse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glenn Branca record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Divine Comedy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dark Day,
The Walker Brothers,
Wasted Youth,
Absolute Body Control,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Knickerbockers,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Procol Harum,
Soft Machine,
The Fuzztones,
Organ,
Fatback Band,
Scientists,
Ornette Coleman,
Camouflage,
The Last Poets,
Boredoms,
Letta Mbulu,
Man Parrish,
Aloha Tigers,
Amon Düül II,
the Slits,
Deadbeat,
Steve Hackett,
Robert Görl,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Barclay James Harvest,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Lungfish,
Max Romeo,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Barry Ungar,
Chris Corsano,
The Busters,
The Standells,
The Real Kids,
X-102,
Black Sheep,
Rufus Thomas,
Matthew Halsall,
Derrick May,
Yusef Lateef,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Fugs,
The Slits,
Swans,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Doobie Brothers,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Fear,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Heaven 17,
Subhumans,
The Searchers,
Gabor Szabo,
Swell Maps,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.