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 Palau and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Joe Smooth to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. All the underground hits.
All The Monochrome Set tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eli Mardock 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 marimba and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Age Steppers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Agent Orange,
Brand Nubian,
Faust,
Cheater Slicks,
Ponytail,
MDC,
Brass Construction,
Eric Copeland,
The Slits,
Warren Ellis,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Byron Stingily,
Alice Coltrane,
Ken Boothe,
Junior Murvin,
The Monks,
The Seeds,
Kurtis Blow,
Dennis Brown,
Suburban Knight,
Josef K,
Yaz,
Ituana,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Stockholm Monsters,
Johnny Osbourne,
Hashim,
New Order,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Jacques Brel,
Gastr Del Sol,
the Human League,
Deadbeat,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Essential Logic,
Bauhaus,
Metal Thangz,
Eddi Front,
Scion,
The Modern Lovers,
The Remains,
The Doors,
cv313,
Pantaleimon,
Peter & Gordon,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Black Dice,
Blake Baxter,
Throbbing Gristle,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Oblivians,
Motorama,
The Techniques,
Bad Manners,
Wire,
The Smoke,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Durutti Column,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs.
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.