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 Italy and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Gang of Four to the dance 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 Whodini. All the underground hits.
All The Residents tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lyres record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joe Smooth,
The Durutti Column,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Letta Mbulu,
Yellowson,
Royal Trux,
the Bar-Kays,
Patti Smith,
Eve St. Jones,
Juan Atkins,
The Techniques,
Rekid,
Glenn Branca,
The Monochrome Set,
Average White Band,
Gang Green,
Bad Manners,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ponytail,
Second Layer,
Heaven 17,
MC5,
The Blues Magoos,
Eric Copeland,
The Tremeloes,
Oneida,
The Young Rascals,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Harry Pussy,
The Leaves,
Livin' Joy,
Procol Harum,
Joe Finger,
Grey Daturas,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Groovy Waters,
The Electric Prunes,
Marmalade,
Eric B and Rakim,
Fat Boys,
The Slackers,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Bang On A Can,
Brothers Johnson,
Amon Düül II,
Chris Corsano,
John Holt,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Archie Shepp,
The Residents,
Drive Like Jehu,
Interpol,
Crispian St. Peters,
DJ Style,
The Modern Lovers,
Suburban Knight,
Boz Scaggs,
Leonard Cohen,
the Sonics,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Sound Behaviour,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike.
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.