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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Davy DMX to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Hoover. All the underground hits.
All Smog tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ronnie Foster record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
L. Decosne,
The Pretty Things,
The Last Poets,
Stockholm Monsters,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Mad Mike,
Massinfluence,
Lou Reed,
Livin' Joy,
Pole,
Morten Harket,
The Leaves,
The New Christs,
Jandek,
Moby Grape,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
China Crisis,
Nico,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Procol Harum,
Gabor Szabo,
Scratch Acid,
Dorothy Ashby,
Magma,
Charles Mingus,
Scientists,
Pharoah Sanders,
Mantronix,
Cecil Taylor,
Kas Product,
Jawbox,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bizarre Inc.,
Warren Ellis,
Tim Buckley,
Johnny Clarke,
Mary Jane Girls,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gang Gang Dance,
Barry Ungar,
Severed Heads,
E-Dancer,
Godley & Creme,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Red Krayola,
The Electric Prunes,
Roger Hodgson,
Lyres,
Slick Rick,
The Doobie Brothers,
Amon Düül II,
Reuben Wilson,
New Age Steppers,
Sällskapet,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse.
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.