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 Papua New Guinea and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 arpeggiator 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 La Düsseldorf 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sugar Minott 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marvin Gaye record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bauhaus,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Franke,
The Modern Lovers,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Siglo XX,
The Dead C,
Dorothy Ashby,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sex Pistols,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Stockholm Monsters,
Radiohead,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Cymande,
The Barracudas,
Masters at Work,
The Searchers,
Alton Ellis,
The Cowsills,
Eric Dolphy,
Lyres,
The Selecter,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Knickerbockers,
Royal Trux,
Fluxion,
Cal Tjader,
Henry Cow,
Scrapy,
Black Sheep,
Slick Rick,
X-101,
Moby Grape,
The J.B.'s,
Anthony Braxton,
China Crisis,
Sight & Sound,
CMW,
Sparks,
Brand Nubian,
Lalann,
Minor Threat,
Lindisfarne,
Ultra Naté,
Alison Limerick,
Erasure,
Eric B and Rakim,
A Certain Ratio,
Amon Düül,
Bill Near,
Eurythmics,
Funky Four + One,
Marmalade,
Mary Jane Girls,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Intrusion,
Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas.
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.