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 Venezuela and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 Glasgow and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 guitar 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 Robert Wyatt to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All The Neon Judgement tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Parry Music record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 linndrum and a 808 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 spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Thompson Twins,
Barbara Tucker,
Dark Day,
The Buckinghams,
Gang of Four,
Tres Demented,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Techniques,
Unwound,
The Selecter,
Essential Logic,
Gabor Szabo,
Robert Görl,
JFA,
Average White Band,
Leonard Cohen,
Lou Christie,
DJ Style,
Bill Wells,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Cowsills,
Gregory Isaacs,
Outsiders,
Flipper,
Funky Four + One,
Graham Central Station,
Cameo,
Letta Mbulu,
Max Romeo,
Jawbox,
The Pretty Things,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Qualms,
Fatback Band,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Johnny Osbourne,
Prince Buster,
Moss Icon,
James White and The Blacks,
ABC,
U.S. Maple,
Rapeman,
Bizarre Inc.,
David Axelrod,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
the Soft Cell,
Rakim,
The Monks,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Quadrant,
The Angels of Light,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
China Crisis,
X-101,
The Slackers,
Colin Newman,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gong,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
John Cale, John Cale, John Cale, John Cale.
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.