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 Dominican Republic and from Cairo.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the mellotron 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 The Skatalites to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Easy Going. All the underground hits.
All Altered Images tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jesper Dahlbäck record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ornette Coleman,
The Tremeloes,
Soft Cell,
Silicon Teens,
Don Cherry,
Sam Rivers,
L. Decosne,
Josef K,
X-Ray Spex,
Tears for Fears,
Section 25,
Lower 48,
Zero Boys,
The New Christs,
Rites of Spring,
B.T. Express,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Gang Gang Dance,
Godley & Creme,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Hot Snakes,
Livin' Joy,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
the Germs,
Todd Rundgren,
The Walker Brothers,
Swell Maps,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Average White Band,
Frankie Knuckles,
Byron Stingily,
The Neon Judgement,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Patti Smith,
Blossom Toes,
The Golliwogs,
Mr. Review,
Erykah Badu,
Rotary Connection,
Sixth Finger,
New Age Steppers,
The Knickerbockers,
June Days,
Simply Red,
Cluster,
Albert Ayler,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Wake,
Au Pairs,
Moss Icon,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sound Behaviour,
EPMD,
Grey Daturas,
Lee Hazlewood,
Flipper,
Ultra Naté,
Mo-Dettes,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Gladiators,
Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode.
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.