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 Nauru and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 La Düsseldorf to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Skatalites record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grey Daturas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sound,
The J.B.'s,
Make Up,
In Retrospect,
Alphaville,
Soulsonic Force,
This Heat,
Gang of Four,
Tres Demented,
The Evens,
Traffic Nightmare,
Con Funk Shun,
the Bar-Kays,
Gabor Szabo,
Kool Moe Dee,
Cal Tjader,
Urselle,
Technova,
Jeru the Damaja,
Jimmy McGriff,
Crispy Ambulance,
Danielle Patucci,
Alice Coltrane,
The Doors,
Delta 5,
the Germs,
Unrelated Segments,
The Cure,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Fuzztones,
The Buckinghams,
Black Pus,
Pantytec,
Ponytail,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Bill Near,
Soul Sonic Force,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Lee Hazlewood,
Nik Kershaw,
James White and The Blacks,
Minutemen,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Joy Division,
Moby Grape,
The Neon Judgement,
Susan Cadogan,
Robert Hood,
Judy Mowatt,
Bauhaus,
Flash Fearless,
Peter & Gordon,
Stetsasonic,
The United States of America,
Eric B and Rakim,
Lindisfarne,
Joey Negro,
Carl Craig,
Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding.
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.