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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 guitar 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 Matthew Bourne to the rap 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 Heaven 17. All the underground hits.
All T.S.O.L. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Drexciya record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brick 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 Cramps,
Scrapy,
Bobby Sherman,
Matthew Halsall,
Alton Ellis,
Alphaville,
Colin Newman,
Scan 7,
The Fugs,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Carl Craig,
Kenny Larkin,
Delon & Dalcan,
Joyce Sims,
Camberwell Now,
Nation of Ulysses,
X-102,
Eve St. Jones,
Barclay James Harvest,
Cal Tjader,
Mo-Dettes,
Kas Product,
Aswad,
The Star Department,
The Move,
The Residents,
Quando Quango,
The Happenings,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Durutti Column,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
8 Eyed Spy,
Crash Course in Science,
Ultravox,
The Fuzztones,
The Motions,
Slick Rick,
Curtis Mayfield,
Basic Channel,
Cecil Taylor,
Don Cherry,
Gerry Rafferty,
Sun Ra,
Michelle Simonal,
Sugar Minott,
Delta 5,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Slackers,
Sister Nancy,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Bill Near,
Bang On A Can,
Gabor Szabo,
Visage,
Interpol,
Kurtis Blow,
Nik Kershaw,
Pylon,
Scott Walker,
The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas.
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.