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 Vanuatu and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 oboe 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 Groovy Waters to the disco 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 Wings. All the underground hits.
All China Crisis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tears for Fears record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Altered Images record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
The Walker Brothers,
Groovy Waters,
Roy Ayers,
The Golliwogs,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Dead C,
This Heat,
Gang Green,
Average White Band,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ice-T,
Con Funk Shun,
Boz Scaggs,
Angry Samoans,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lou Christie,
Amon Düül II,
Sparks,
Eden Ahbez,
Easy Going,
PIL,
Sixth Finger,
John Lydon,
Spoonie Gee,
Tres Demented,
Sun City Girls,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Invisible,
Grandmaster Flash,
Scott Walker,
Rekid,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
DNA,
Sonny Sharrock,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Erasure,
The Detroit Cobras,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Connie Case,
Delta 5,
June Days,
Ludus,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Sister Nancy,
Letta Mbulu,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Fugs,
Peter and Kerry,
The Black Dice,
The Blackbyrds,
Isaac Hayes,
Gil Scott Heron,
Camouflage,
Grauzone,
The Moleskins,
Television Personalities,
Pantaleimon,
Soft Cell,
Hot Snakes,
Hoover, Hoover, Hoover, Hoover.
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.