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 Chile and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Robert Palmer 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 The Invisible to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All The Litter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maurizio 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 theremin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Birthday Party record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television,
Outsiders,
Animal Collective,
Bronski Beat,
Q and Not U,
Spandau Ballet,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Arthur Verocai,
Rakim,
Niagra,
Junior Murvin,
The Blues Magoos,
Kaleidoscope,
Todd Rundgren,
JFA,
Mark Hollis,
Quando Quango,
Heaven 17,
Radio Birdman,
Howard Jones,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Durutti Column,
X-Ray Spex,
The Young Rascals,
One Last Wish,
Nick Fraelich,
Crooked Eye,
The Star Department,
Bobby Womack,
Erasure,
Scrapy,
Harmonia,
Gabor Szabo,
Tears for Fears,
James White and The Blacks,
New Age Steppers,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Magazine,
The Fuzztones,
Marine Girls,
the Sonics,
Average White Band,
Hasil Adkins,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Funky Four + One,
Andrew Hill,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Sarah Menescal,
Deadbeat,
Soft Machine,
ABBA,
Shoche,
Mandrill,
Sparks,
Ice-T,
Fear,
Unwound,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Last Poets,
Minnie Riperton,
The Birthday Party,
Quadrant,
MC5, MC5, MC5, MC5.
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.