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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Manila.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Robert Hood 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 Yusef Lateef. All the underground hits.
All Massinfluence tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Archie Shepp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pet Shop Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
The Young Rascals,
Sparks,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
DJ Style,
The Standells,
Darondo,
Can,
The Litter,
Nirvana,
Kaleidoscope,
Cal Tjader,
Sight & Sound,
Terrestrial Tones,
Lalo Schifrin,
Rakim,
Man Eating Sloth,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Saints,
Scratch Acid,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Essential Logic,
Underground Resistance,
Vladislav Delay,
Wasted Youth,
The Monochrome Set,
David McCallum,
Idris Muhammad,
Albert Ayler,
Mission of Burma,
The Victims,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Rekid,
Tim Buckley,
Althea and Donna,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Ituana,
Babytalk,
Wings,
Pet Shop Boys,
Quando Quango,
Popol Vuh,
Schoolly D,
John Holt,
The Doobie Brothers,
Camberwell Now,
The Walker Brothers,
Dorothy Ashby,
Jimmy McGriff,
Soul II Soul,
Malaria!,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Trojans,
Fatback Band,
Gang of Four,
Pharoah Sanders,
Jerry's Kids,
Electric Prunes,
Godley & Creme,
Grauzone,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Faust, Faust, Faust, Faust.
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.