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 Libya and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Patti Smith to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Tres Demented. All the underground hits.
All Zero Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Das Ding 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tropical Tobacco,
Moss Icon,
Organ,
Pulsallama,
Carl Craig,
The Associates,
Heaven 17,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Lakeside,
Reagan Youth,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Country Teasers,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Frankie Knuckles,
Alphaville,
Babytalk,
Zero Boys,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Fear,
Ornette Coleman,
PIL,
Terry Callier,
Eve St. Jones,
Saccharine Trust,
Black Moon,
Bronski Beat,
8 Eyed Spy,
Arthur Verocai,
Visage,
Harpers Bizarre,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Stooges,
Whodini,
Niagra,
Sexual Harrassment,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ponytail,
The Mojo Men,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Arcadia,
F. McDonald,
Suburban Knight,
The Black Dice,
Rufus Thomas,
Crooked Eye,
Barrington Levy,
EPMD,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Ultimate Spinach,
Nils Olav,
Y Pants,
Mission of Burma,
Radiopuhelimet,
E-Dancer,
Blancmange,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Second Layer,
Smog,
The United States of America,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.