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 Sweden and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 clarinet 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 Rapeman to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Ultra Naté. All the underground hits.
All Matthew Halsall tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mandrill record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The American Breed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kaleidoscope,
Black Bananas,
Colin Newman,
OOIOO,
The Pretty Things,
Bob Dylan,
Rotary Connection,
Interpol,
Depeche Mode,
LL Cool J,
The Gladiators,
Bauhaus,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Mo-Dettes,
UT,
The Mojo Men,
Brass Construction,
Althea and Donna,
Junior Murvin,
Lindisfarne,
Letta Mbulu,
Tomorrow,
Groovy Waters,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Gabor Szabo,
Sister Nancy,
The American Breed,
The Sonics,
Unrelated Segments,
Radio Birdman,
Barry Ungar,
David McCallum,
the Human League,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Human League,
Robert Görl,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Lee Hazlewood,
Warren Ellis,
The Velvet Underground,
The Sound,
Patti Smith,
Don Cherry,
Derrick Morgan,
T.S.O.L.,
New Age Steppers,
Sonic Youth,
Procol Harum,
The Music Machine,
The Knickerbockers,
Yellowson,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
L. Decosne,
Kevin Saunderson,
Ultravox,
The United States of America,
Hot Snakes,
New York Dolls,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Trumans Water,
Guru Guru,
Can,
Arcadia,
Tubeway Army,
This Heat, This Heat, This Heat, This Heat.
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.