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 Eritrea and from Accra.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Cramps to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Peter and Kerry. All the underground hits.
All Morten Harket tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 an oboe and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Grass Roots record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Index,
The Vogues,
Rotary Connection,
Anakelly,
Yazoo,
Lee Hazlewood,
Moebius,
Liliput,
Prince Buster,
Zero Boys,
Chris & Cosey,
Black Moon,
Animal Collective,
Funkadelic,
Isaac Hayes,
Johnny Clarke,
The Shadows of Knight,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Deadbeat,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Dawn Penn,
Radiopuhelimet,
Kaleidoscope,
Fear,
ABC,
Fad Gadget,
Flipper,
Brothers Johnson,
Barry Ungar,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Magma,
Flash Fearless,
Procol Harum,
Absolute Body Control,
Black Flag,
Mission of Burma,
Don Cherry,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Lindisfarne,
The Durutti Column,
Tres Demented,
Eric Dolphy,
Camberwell Now,
Surgeon,
Eli Mardock,
The Walker Brothers,
Rakim,
Gerry Rafferty,
Los Fastidios,
The Mummies,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Zeros,
Average White Band,
Bad Manners,
Robert Wyatt,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Misunderstood,
Spoonie Gee,
Popol Vuh,
Minutemen,
Von Mondo,
Kurtis Blow,
K-Klass, K-Klass, K-Klass, K-Klass.
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.