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 Cameroon and from Manila.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the güiro 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 Gang Green to the techno 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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All Gabor Szabo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siouxsie and the Banshees record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dirtbombs,
Bootsy Collins,
Charles Mingus,
Yazoo,
Circle Jerks,
Amon Düül II,
Glenn Branca,
Yusef Lateef,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Warsaw,
E-Dancer,
CMW,
The Slackers,
Ultra Naté,
James White and The Blacks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sixth Finger,
The Sound,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
In Retrospect,
The Grass Roots,
Funkadelic,
Ten City,
Howard Jones,
Wally Richardson,
John Cale,
Sarah Menescal,
Johnny Clarke,
Bill Wells,
Matthew Halsall,
Eric Copeland,
Jacques Brel,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sam Rivers,
David Axelrod,
Absolute Body Control,
JFA,
The Happenings,
Los Fastidios,
The Moleskins,
Sex Pistols,
Average White Band,
Von Mondo,
The Red Krayola,
Essential Logic,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Big Daddy Kane,
Reuben Wilson,
Fugazi,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Dave Clark Five,
Mary Jane Girls,
Byron Stingily,
Bizarre Inc.,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Robert Hood,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Camberwell Now,
Dennis Brown,
Tubeway Army,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.