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 Malawi and from Bremen.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to the dance 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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All Loose Ends tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultravox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gichy Dan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young,
Dennis Brown,
Alice Coltrane,
Unrelated Segments,
Lalo Schifrin,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Surgeon,
Kool Moe Dee,
Matthew Halsall,
X-101,
The Raincoats,
Ponytail,
Crash Course in Science,
James White and The Blacks,
Gabor Szabo,
Boogie Down Productions,
Crooked Eye,
Althea and Donna,
Technova,
The Happenings,
DJ Style,
Youth Brigade,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Anthony Braxton,
Amon Düül,
the Association,
Essential Logic,
Traffic Nightmare,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Oblivians,
Lalann,
Negative Approach,
Pylon,
Rakim,
Faust,
Oneida,
Pantaleimon,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
In Retrospect,
Monolake,
The Real Kids,
Guru Guru,
E-Dancer,
June Days,
T. Rex,
JFA,
Fear,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The J.B.'s,
B.T. Express,
The Knickerbockers,
Pierre Henry,
Robert Hood,
Electric Prunes,
Y Pants,
The Associates,
The Saints,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.