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 Sierra Leone and from Madrid.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Mighty Diamonds to the techno 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 Dawn Penn. All the underground hits.
All Magma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Icehouse 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joyce Sims record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ponytail,
Robert Hood,
Tears for Fears,
Joe Finger,
Reagan Youth,
Intrusion,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Barracudas,
Hasil Adkins,
The Walker Brothers,
The Mummies,
B.T. Express,
Sandy B,
Surgeon,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Gap Band,
Bobby Sherman,
Faust,
AZ,
Lungfish,
Minny Pops,
The Velvet Underground,
Au Pairs,
Dennis Brown,
Simply Red,
Frankie Knuckles,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Pulsallama,
The Sisters of Mercy,
10cc,
The Black Dice,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Names,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Maleditus Sound,
Goldenarms,
Rod Modell,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Stereo Dub,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Al Stewart,
Patti Smith,
T.S.O.L.,
Peter & Gordon,
Absolute Body Control,
The Five Americans,
Stockholm Monsters,
Cybotron,
Sun Ra,
Bootsy Collins,
Jeff Lynne,
Cheater Slicks,
Piero Umiliani,
In Retrospect,
Traffic Nightmare,
Ohio Players,
Scrapy,
Half Japanese,
Jesper Dahlback,
Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike.
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.