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 Jamaica and from Beijing.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Amon Düül to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Clear Light. All the underground hits.
All Porter Ricks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf 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 an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic 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 Flesh Eaters,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Underground Resistance,
Ten City,
Man Eating Sloth,
Amon Düül,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Black Bananas,
Fugazi,
Newcleus,
Barbara Tucker,
PIL,
Amon Düül II,
Ultimate Spinach,
Swell Maps,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Jimmy McGriff,
Saccharine Trust,
Dennis Brown,
Jerry's Kids,
The Electric Prunes,
Minnie Riperton,
Blake Baxter,
Subhumans,
Public Enemy,
B.T. Express,
Nick Fraelich,
Los Fastidios,
Ronan,
a-ha,
Sandy B,
Qualms,
Cymande,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Mojo Men,
Eric B and Rakim,
H. Thieme,
This Heat,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Residents,
the Slits,
Scott Walker,
Sällskapet,
Nation of Ulysses,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Aswad,
Average White Band,
Whodini,
Aural Exciters,
Roxy Music,
Joey Negro,
Nico,
Gastr Del Sol,
Clear Light,
Yusef Lateef,
Trumans Water,
Scion,
The Searchers,
Sonic Youth,
Massinfluence,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.