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 Swaziland and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Kaleidoscope to the grime 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Avey Tare tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Peanut Butter Conspiracy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Dirtbombs,
The Moody Blues,
Flamin' Groovies,
Excepter,
Wire,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Joensuu 1685,
Cameo,
Severed Heads,
Cecil Taylor,
The Toasters,
Ituana,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Newcleus,
Magazine,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Funkadelic,
Lee Hazlewood,
Carl Craig,
Donald Byrd,
Fad Gadget,
Subhumans,
The Beau Brummels,
The Doobie Brothers,
Black Sheep,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Names,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David Bowie,
F. McDonald,
Shuggie Otis,
Flipper,
The Music Machine,
Brick,
FM Einheit,
Robert Wyatt,
Jerry's Kids,
Intrusion,
Stiv Bators,
Gang Starr,
Idris Muhammad,
Flash Fearless,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Anthony Braxton,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Aural Exciters,
Black Pus,
Tubeway Army,
the Swans,
The Seeds,
Ten City,
The Flesh Eaters,
Aswad,
Crime,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Pole,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Joe Finger,
Lower 48,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive.
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.