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 Guinea-Bissau and from Tokyo.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Calgary.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Dark Day to the funk 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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Stiv Bators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-102 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 a synthesizer and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet 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 Evens,
The Dave Clark Five,
Unwound,
CMW,
Erasure,
The Birthday Party,
The Invisible,
Fort Wilson Riot,
PIL,
Patti Smith,
Japan,
Juan Atkins,
The Leaves,
Spoonie Gee,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Essential Logic,
The Fire Engines,
Roxette,
Nico,
Quadrant,
Sugar Minott,
Bobby Sherman,
the Human League,
Maleditus Sound,
D'Angelo,
the Soft Cell,
Fat Boys,
Nik Kershaw,
Rapeman,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Saccharine Trust,
The Seeds,
The Walker Brothers,
Radiohead,
the Bar-Kays,
The Zeros,
Delon & Dalcan,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Black Moon,
Black Sheep,
Surgeon,
New York Dolls,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Ituana,
Dead Boys,
Thompson Twins,
The Last Poets,
Crooked Eye,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Excepter,
The Golliwogs,
Suicide,
Bootsy Collins,
Pharoah Sanders,
Animal Collective,
Yusef Lateef,
Prince Buster,
Johnny Clarke,
Organ,
Wally Richardson,
Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu.
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.