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 Cameroon and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Barry Ungar to the rock 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 Smog. All the underground hits.
All The Raincoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Godley & Creme record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Man Parrish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Glenn Branca,
Bill Near,
Neu!,
Man Eating Sloth,
ABC,
The Selecter,
Prince Buster,
Drexciya,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Standells,
Lalo Schifrin,
Lou Christie,
The Walker Brothers,
Fad Gadget,
Crime,
Ultimate Spinach,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Terry Callier,
Faust,
Skarface,
Joensuu 1685,
Camouflage,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Skriet,
Darondo,
Marine Girls,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sonny Sharrock,
Q and Not U,
Fela Kuti,
The Slackers,
Swell Maps,
Tears for Fears,
Mandrill,
Blake Baxter,
Simply Red,
The Gories,
Judy Mowatt,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Henry Cow,
Underground Resistance,
Gil Scott Heron,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Von Mondo,
Jeff Mills,
Moebius,
Au Pairs,
John Lydon,
Alison Limerick,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
the Bar-Kays,
Smog,
Alton Ellis,
Fugazi,
Pierre Henry,
Gong,
Panda Bear,
The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics.
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.