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 Burkina and from Manchester.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Kaleidoscope to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All Quadrant tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Liliput record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Enemy,
Silicon Teens,
The Neon Judgement,
Cluster,
Eurythmics,
Leonard Cohen,
Television,
The Smiths,
Mr. Review,
Avey Tare,
This Heat,
Jimmy McGriff,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Ken Boothe,
Kurtis Blow,
Gong,
Pharoah Sanders,
Wolf Eyes,
Eli Mardock,
Bootsy Collins,
Al Stewart,
Frankie Knuckles,
Blancmange,
Crooked Eye,
the Fania All-Stars,
Visage,
Lindisfarne,
Colin Newman,
Danielle Patucci,
Absolute Body Control,
Girls At Our Best!,
Circle Jerks,
Pierre Henry,
Davy DMX,
Goldenarms,
Electric Light Orchestra,
La Düsseldorf,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Gladiators,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Blake Baxter,
Moby Grape,
Ronan,
The Mojo Men,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Agent Orange,
Aaron Thompson,
Technova,
Dennis Brown,
Arab on Radar,
The Invisible,
Robert Görl,
Los Fastidios,
Warsaw,
Banda Bassotti,
Oneida,
Y Pants,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Wasted Youth,
Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo.
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.