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 Lithuania and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York 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 mellotron 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 Cecil Taylor to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Matthew Halsall. All the underground hits.
All Das Ding tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Music Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nation of Ulysses,
the Soft Cell,
Minutemen,
Swell Maps,
Susan Cadogan,
Wings,
Circle Jerks,
Electric Prunes,
New Order,
Black Pus,
Jawbox,
The Misunderstood,
Judy Mowatt,
The Gap Band,
EPMD,
Ken Boothe,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Youth Brigade,
Cal Tjader,
The Smoke,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Grandmaster Flash,
Bad Manners,
John Lydon,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
A Certain Ratio,
Jacob Miller,
Ultra Naté,
Avey Tare,
The Dead C,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Underground Resistance,
Lower 48,
The Gun Club,
Pet Shop Boys,
The J.B.'s,
Yazoo,
The Grass Roots,
Patti Smith,
Buzzcocks,
Gregory Isaacs,
Janne Schatter,
Donny Hathaway,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Second Layer,
The Gladiators,
Groovy Waters,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Barracudas,
Average White Band,
Al Stewart,
Howard Jones,
Black Bananas,
Boredoms,
Talk Talk,
Pylon,
June Days,
Sällskapet,
Black Flag,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Flamin' Groovies, Flamin' Groovies, Flamin' Groovies, Flamin' Groovies.
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.