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 Libya and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Main Source to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Los Fastidios record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 an oboe and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Faust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Tremeloes,
Neil Young,
Bobbi Humphrey,
E-Dancer,
The Walker Brothers,
The Monochrome Set,
Jawbox,
Barrington Levy,
CMW,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Dead C,
John Holt,
Make Up,
Sällskapet,
FM Einheit,
Connie Case,
Mantronix,
The Dave Clark Five,
Albert Ayler,
the Fania All-Stars,
Marcia Griffiths,
Kenny Larkin,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Japan,
The Doobie Brothers,
Matthew Halsall,
The Kinks,
New York Dolls,
The Martian,
Dark Day,
Eli Mardock,
Minnie Riperton,
Derrick Morgan,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Grandmaster Flash,
Cecil Taylor,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Gil Scott Heron,
Slave,
Bill Near,
Robert Wyatt,
The Detroit Cobras,
Gabor Szabo,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Circle Jerks,
Lower 48,
Rosa Yemen,
The Five Americans,
John Lydon,
The Stooges,
Blake Baxter,
Harpers Bizarre,
Funkadelic,
Scan 7,
Boogie Down Productions,
Model 500,
Tears for Fears,
The Mojo Men,
Blossom Toes,
New Order,
The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots.
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.