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 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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 808 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 Shoche to the electroclash 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 Pierre Henry. All the underground hits.
All Toni Rubio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Slackers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Move,
Matthew Halsall,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Scion,
Von Mondo,
Erasure,
Max Romeo,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Kaleidoscope,
Can,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Urselle,
Eurythmics,
Sarah Menescal,
Skriet,
Jeru the Damaja,
Funkadelic,
Agitation Free,
Sexual Harrassment,
Rakim,
The Raincoats,
In Retrospect,
Johnny Clarke,
The Knickerbockers,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Wally Richardson,
Country Teasers,
Depeche Mode,
Howard Jones,
Gabor Szabo,
Lou Reed,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sonic Youth,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Shoche,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Stereo Dub,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
One Last Wish,
Accadde A,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
OOIOO,
Tres Demented,
Spoonie Gee,
Alison Limerick,
Connie Case,
Jerry's Kids,
Rosa Yemen,
Sound Behaviour,
The Moody Blues,
Donny Hathaway,
Gang Starr,
The Last Poets,
Heaven 17,
FM Einheit,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.