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 Antigua and from Lagos.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 X-Ray Spex to the techno 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 Johnny Osbourne. All the underground hits.
All Joe Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every June of 44 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q65,
Stereo Dub,
The Durutti Column,
Niagra,
Grey Daturas,
Ituana,
David McCallum,
Tim Buckley,
EPMD,
Avey Tare,
John Holt,
The Gap Band,
MDC,
Eden Ahbez,
Joe Smooth,
Tubeway Army,
Dennis Brown,
Camberwell Now,
Amon Düül II,
Roger Hodgson,
Television Personalities,
Animal Collective,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Nas,
Don Cherry,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Arab on Radar,
The Motions,
Urselle,
The Moody Blues,
Nik Kershaw,
The Last Poets,
The Mojo Men,
Ossler,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Boogie Down Productions,
Parry Music,
AZ,
The Angels of Light,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Fluxion,
Khruangbin,
Godley & Creme,
The Moleskins,
Popol Vuh,
The Red Krayola,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Divine Comedy,
Mantronix,
Nico,
Soulsonic Force,
The Walker Brothers,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Skatalites,
Lalo Schifrin,
Faust,
Cameo,
Patti Smith,
Girls At Our Best!,
Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive.
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.