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 Papua New Guinea and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 Lou Reed 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 Black Bananas to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Half Japanese. All the underground hits.
All the Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Amazonics record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marmalade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gladiators,
The Gap Band,
Scratch Acid,
Ronan,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Rotary Connection,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
R.M.O.,
The Selecter,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Durutti Column,
Bronski Beat,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eve St. Jones,
ABBA,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Hot Snakes,
Black Moon,
The Young Rascals,
Fad Gadget,
Scrapy,
The Blues Magoos,
Jeff Mills,
The Fortunes,
Livin' Joy,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tears for Fears,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Japan,
Amon Düül,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Cramps,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Ultimate Spinach,
Groovy Waters,
Make Up,
Technova,
Camberwell Now,
Intrusion,
Pet Shop Boys,
Inner City,
Tomorrow,
Desert Stars,
Nils Olav,
Television Personalities,
Tropical Tobacco,
Chrome,
Marmalade,
Robert Wyatt,
Pere Ubu,
Fluxion,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Junior Murvin,
The Star Department,
Lou Christie,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Kinks,
Chris Corsano,
The Zeros,
the Slits,
Glambeats Corp.,
Ornette Coleman,
Scion,
The American Breed,
Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins.
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.