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 Chad and from Salvador.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Guru Guru to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sarah Menescal. All the underground hits.
All The Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharoah Sanders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
This Heat,
Carl Craig,
Don Cherry,
Negative Approach,
MDC,
Matthew Halsall,
Tubeway Army,
Faraquet,
Black Flag,
Kurtis Blow,
Slave,
The Mighty Diamonds,
the Slits,
The Techniques,
The Angels of Light,
Scion,
Scott Walker,
The Standells,
Alice Coltrane,
UT,
Dorothy Ashby,
Avey Tare,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Terry Callier,
Ponytail,
DJ Sneak,
Mission of Burma,
Swans,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Busters,
The Smiths,
Bronski Beat,
Easy Going,
Freddie Wadling,
Surgeon,
Laurel Aitken,
Theoretical Girls,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Misunderstood,
Average White Band,
Lower 48,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Slick Rick,
The Raincoats,
Joe Finger,
Crispy Ambulance,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
kango's stein massive,
Electric Prunes,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Rufus Thomas,
Bill Near,
Marine Girls,
Gong,
Robert Görl,
Thee Headcoats,
Talk Talk,
Minnie Riperton,
Fugazi,
Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad.
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.