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 Comoros and from Sao Paulo.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Symarip to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Popol Vuh. All the underground hits.
All Roger Hodgson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stereo Dub record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Althea and Donna record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Walker Brothers,
Brick,
Albert Ayler,
Iggy Pop,
The Doors,
Robert Hood,
Skaos,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Brothers Johnson,
Popol Vuh,
Circle Jerks,
Johnny Clarke,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
James White and The Blacks,
China Crisis,
Arab on Radar,
Severed Heads,
Ice-T,
Dead Boys,
Amon Düül,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Mantronix,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Fluxion,
Blake Baxter,
Laurel Aitken,
Graham Central Station,
The Move,
Outsiders,
Sällskapet,
The Searchers,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Grey Daturas,
Q and Not U,
The Alarm Clocks,
Siglo XX,
Alton Ellis,
Eric B and Rakim,
R.M.O.,
Leonard Cohen,
The Zeros,
Pantaleimon,
The Mojo Men,
Sam Rivers,
Audionom,
The Smiths,
Amon Düül II,
Josef K,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Bob Dylan,
Jerry's Kids,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Mission of Burma,
Neil Young,
Half Japanese,
Chris Corsano,
Jimmy McGriff,
Prince Buster,
Todd Rundgren,
Wasted Youth,
Rosa Yemen,
Reuben Wilson,
Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone.
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.