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 Sri Lanka and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Blake Baxter to the jazz 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 Minutemen. All the underground hits.
All Magazine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Terrestrial Tones,
Girls At Our Best!,
James White and The Blacks,
The Tremeloes,
Leonard Cohen,
The Sonics,
The Move,
Television,
The Gladiators,
Piero Umiliani,
Kaleidoscope,
Basic Channel,
Eden Ahbez,
Man Parrish,
Amazonics,
ABBA,
the Bar-Kays,
The Gories,
Crash Course in Science,
A Certain Ratio,
Jacques Brel,
Thee Headcoats,
Archie Shepp,
Can,
Byron Stingily,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ohio Players,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Happenings,
Jeff Mills,
Q and Not U,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Gun Club,
Von Mondo,
Supertramp,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Victims,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Rufus Thomas,
Dawn Penn,
The Selecter,
The Dirtbombs,
Cybotron,
Throbbing Gristle,
Eric Dolphy,
cv313,
Grandmaster Flash,
Fat Boys,
JFA,
The Index,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Neil Young,
Rotary Connection,
Oblivians,
Joe Finger,
Scion,
Bill Wells,
Nick Fraelich,
Rites of Spring,
The Trojans,
In Retrospect,
John Holt, John Holt, John Holt, John Holt.
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.