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 South Africa and from Columbus.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers to the techno 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 Severed Heads. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gladiators record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Richard Hell and the Voidoids record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
It's A Beautiful Day,
Jawbox,
Peter & Gordon,
Livin' Joy,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Schoolly D,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Count Five,
Dawn Penn,
Scratch Acid,
Gabor Szabo,
The Smoke,
Magazine,
The Sonics,
The Zeros,
Amon Düül,
Alice Coltrane,
Cecil Taylor,
Byron Stingily,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Pantaleimon,
The Monochrome Set,
Essential Logic,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Misunderstood,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Ultravox,
Janne Schatter,
10cc,
the Sonics,
Tropical Tobacco,
Eric Copeland,
UT,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Shuggie Otis,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Todd Terry,
A Certain Ratio,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Associates,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Names,
Monks,
Joe Smooth,
Scott Walker,
Althea and Donna,
Roxy Music,
Mark Hollis,
Junior Murvin,
Lou Christie,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Siglo XX,
the Bar-Kays,
The Doobie Brothers,
Little Man,
Bizarre Inc.,
Pere Ubu,
Robert Hood,
Technova,
Wally Richardson,
The Walker Brothers,
Section 25,
Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock.
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.