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 Mozambique and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the 808 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Neil Young & Crazy Horse. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 harpsichord and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mantronix record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dorothy Ashby,
DJ Style,
The Fortunes,
The Gladiators,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Warsaw,
La Düsseldorf,
The Misunderstood,
Aural Exciters,
Von Mondo,
Rod Modell,
Excepter,
Aswad,
Electric Prunes,
The Raincoats,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Skatalites,
Roy Ayers,
Deepchord,
the Germs,
Tommy Roe,
Kaleidoscope,
In Retrospect,
Crime,
the Association,
Bobby Hutcherson,
the Sonics,
Rapeman,
Angry Samoans,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Doobie Brothers,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Victims,
John Foxx,
The Smiths,
The Techniques,
Black Flag,
The Moleskins,
Quadrant,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Carl Craig,
Blancmange,
The Star Department,
Faust,
The Associates,
This Heat,
Aaron Thompson,
June Days,
Ultravox,
Josef K,
Robert Wyatt,
Chrome,
Robert Görl,
Yaz,
Fluxion,
Barbara Tucker,
The Dead C,
The Busters,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.