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 Laos and from Manchester.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Byron Stingily. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eve St. Jones record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a marimba and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jesper Dahlbäck record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fear,
Donald Byrd,
The Golliwogs,
Section 25,
Reagan Youth,
Gang of Four,
Arcadia,
Hardrive,
The Electric Prunes,
Easy Going,
Mad Mike,
Pet Shop Boys,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Sonics,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lungfish,
Thee Headcoats,
Wally Richardson,
Shoche,
The Vogues,
Siglo XX,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Litter,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Colin Newman,
Sight & Sound,
The Five Americans,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Slave,
Metal Thangz,
The J.B.'s,
R.M.O.,
Liliput,
The Dirtbombs,
Godley & Creme,
Motorama,
The Cowsills,
Bill Near,
Sexual Harrassment,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Prince Buster,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Archie Shepp,
Peter and Kerry,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ossler,
Eric Copeland,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Maleditus Sound,
Pulsallama,
Absolute Body Control,
The Walker Brothers,
MDC,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Camouflage,
Massinfluence,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Josef K, Josef K, Josef K, Josef K.
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.