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 South Sudan and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Gap Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Cecil Taylor. All the underground hits.
All ABC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 güiro and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lafayette Afro Rock Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Delta 5,
Robert Wyatt,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ituana,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Black Bananas,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Gabor Szabo,
Monolake,
Kayak,
the Bar-Kays,
the Normal,
D'Angelo,
The Mummies,
Juan Atkins,
Bootsy Collins,
James White and The Blacks,
Cheater Slicks,
Aural Exciters,
The Motions,
Dennis Brown,
Newcleus,
Swans,
The Fortunes,
John Lydon,
Television Personalities,
Magazine,
Marmalade,
Derrick Morgan,
Cymande,
Jawbox,
Unwound,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Quando Quango,
Kaleidoscope,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Altered Images,
Das Ding,
Marcia Griffiths,
Los Fastidios,
Max Romeo,
Fluxion,
Robert Hood,
Big Daddy Kane,
Freddie Wadling,
Tubeway Army,
Babytalk,
Amon Düül II,
Thee Headcoats,
The Star Department,
Scan 7,
The Seeds,
Yazoo,
The Golliwogs,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Cluster,
Second Layer,
Pole,
Albert Ayler,
The Black Dice,
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana.
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.