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 Australia and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Winnipeg.
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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Andrew Hill to the techno kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scientists record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacques Brel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blossom Toes,
Lightning Bolt,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
FM Einheit,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
48th St. Collective,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Moebius,
Avey Tare,
The Searchers,
Lyres,
Procol Harum,
Young Marble Giants,
Wally Richardson,
Erasure,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Boogie Down Productions,
Underground Resistance,
Soft Cell,
Electric Prunes,
The Selecter,
Accadde A,
Junior Murvin,
Piero Umiliani,
Sugar Minott,
Echospace,
Boz Scaggs,
Rufus Thomas,
Amazonics,
the Germs,
Nas,
Terry Callier,
Cal Tjader,
Crime,
Angry Samoans,
Buzzcocks,
Khruangbin,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Stockholm Monsters,
Sun City Girls,
Cluster,
Nils Olav,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Monks,
Crooked Eye,
the Slits,
Loose Ends,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Electric Prunes,
Sam Rivers,
Hoover,
Thompson Twins,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Severed Heads,
Charles Mingus,
Bizarre Inc.,
Aloha Tigers,
Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef.
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.