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 Macedonia and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Josef K to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band. All the underground hits.
All Flipper tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agitation Free record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Organ record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
Quadrant,
MC5,
Funkadelic,
The Last Poets,
Bobby Byrd,
The Tremeloes,
The Neon Judgement,
The Electric Prunes,
Urselle,
Sarah Menescal,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Cluster,
Letta Mbulu,
Niagra,
New York Dolls,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sexual Harrassment,
Q and Not U,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Technova,
Arthur Verocai,
The Index,
Brass Construction,
Joe Finger,
B.T. Express,
The Trojans,
Graham Central Station,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Gun Club,
UT,
The Searchers,
The Dave Clark Five,
Kenny Larkin,
Cheater Slicks,
The Seeds,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fatback Band,
Intrusion,
The Offenders,
Alphaville,
Boogie Down Productions,
Gerry Rafferty,
Dorothy Ashby,
Byron Stingily,
F. McDonald,
Todd Terry,
Eve St. Jones,
Piero Umiliani,
Fear,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Thee Headcoats,
Circle Jerks,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Glenn Branca,
Soft Cell,
Yellowson,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Black Pus,
Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms.
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.