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 Albania and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Yellowson to the techno 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Reagan Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Junior Murvin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Searchers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Zapp,
Reagan Youth,
Camberwell Now,
Neil Young,
Pere Ubu,
John Coltrane,
The Associates,
Soft Cell,
Organ,
Arthur Verocai,
EPMD,
Banda Bassotti,
OOIOO,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Althea and Donna,
Patti Smith,
Howard Jones,
Robert Görl,
Negative Approach,
Fugazi,
Boz Scaggs,
Albert Ayler,
June Days,
Donny Hathaway,
Loose Ends,
Radio Birdman,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Star Department,
Terry Callier,
Jawbox,
Juan Atkins,
T.S.O.L.,
Idris Muhammad,
Leonard Cohen,
Fluxion,
The Grass Roots,
48th St. Collective,
Mandrill,
Minor Threat,
Los Fastidios,
Eric Copeland,
Eric Dolphy,
Moebius,
The Fire Engines,
The Count Five,
Quadrant,
The United States of America,
Robert Hood,
Graham Central Station,
Electric Prunes,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Stetsasonic,
Cheater Slicks,
Archie Shepp,
Warren Ellis,
Connie Case,
10cc,
The Monks,
Roger Hodgson,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.