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 Papua New Guinea and from Delhi.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Gong to the jazz 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 Y Pants. All the underground hits.
All Index tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sly & The Family Stone 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Be Bop Deluxe 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?
Smog,
Agent Orange,
Suicide,
The Leaves,
Quando Quango,
Bizarre Inc.,
Delta 5,
Toni Rubio,
The Skatalites,
Archie Shepp,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Alton Ellis,
Byron Stingily,
Jandek,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kas Product,
A Certain Ratio,
T. Rex,
Banda Bassotti,
Ice-T,
Sister Nancy,
Pantaleimon,
Severed Heads,
Kaleidoscope,
Roy Ayers,
Big Daddy Kane,
AZ,
Iggy Pop,
Cecil Taylor,
Lucky Dragons,
The Red Krayola,
Sam Rivers,
Mars,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Flash Fearless,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sound Behaviour,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Animal Collective,
T.S.O.L.,
The Fire Engines,
Von Mondo,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Kerri Chandler,
Gang of Four,
The Velvet Underground,
Desert Stars,
Andrew Hill,
Harry Pussy,
Tommy Roe,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Yellowson,
The Selecter,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Stooges,
Moby Grape,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Q65,
The Martian,
Camberwell Now,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.