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 Nicaragua and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Sly & The Family Stone to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 New Christs. All the underground hits.
All Bill Near tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lyres 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oneida record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
The Moleskins,
The Electric Prunes,
Toni Rubio,
Goldenarms,
The Residents,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Happenings,
Wings,
The Gap Band,
Barry Ungar,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Soft Machine,
Lakeside,
Aloha Tigers,
Anthony Braxton,
Chris Corsano,
Rotary Connection,
Public Image Ltd.,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The United States of America,
Sound Behaviour,
JFA,
The Motions,
Subhumans,
Mission of Burma,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Rapeman,
Intrusion,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Fuzztones,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Matthew Halsall,
Avey Tare,
Freddie Wadling,
La Düsseldorf,
Liliput,
Q65,
Bill Near,
Monks,
John Coltrane,
Surgeon,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
X-Ray Spex,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Scan 7,
Glenn Branca,
Mr. Review,
the Normal,
Wolf Eyes,
Mad Mike,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Curtis Mayfield,
the Sonics,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Bang On A Can,
Scion,
Crime,
Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson.
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.