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 Mexico and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 guitar 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 Bobby Sherman to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 June of 44. All the underground hits.
All Marmalade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brand Nubian record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Duran Duran 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?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Siglo XX,
Bob Dylan,
Tomorrow,
Patti Smith,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Aswad,
Das Ding,
The Gap Band,
Massinfluence,
Cecil Taylor,
Sugar Minott,
Charles Mingus,
Lyres,
the Association,
The Blues Magoos,
Underground Resistance,
Con Funk Shun,
Terry Callier,
Minnie Riperton,
Aural Exciters,
Visage,
Flash Fearless,
The Gun Club,
Brick,
Howard Jones,
MDC,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Nick Fraelich,
Joe Finger,
The Barracudas,
Basic Channel,
The Vogues,
Barrington Levy,
Nation of Ulysses,
Panda Bear,
Severed Heads,
The Zeros,
Inner City,
Flamin' Groovies,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Jacques Brel,
Procol Harum,
Graham Central Station,
The Buckinghams,
Malaria!,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Velvet Underground,
Lalann,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Stockholm Monsters,
Grandmaster Flash,
Radio Birdman,
Thee Headcoats,
Bauhaus,
Shoche,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Deakin,
Altered Images,
F. McDonald,
The Gladiators,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Cramps, The Cramps, The Cramps, The Cramps.
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.