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 Denmark and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 Beijing and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Flipper to the techno 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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Mary Jane Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Malaria! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funky Four + One record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
Excepter,
Lightning Bolt,
The Doobie Brothers,
Maurizio,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Franke,
The Last Poets,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
a-ha,
The J.B.'s,
Faust,
Tubeway Army,
The Zeros,
Urselle,
Prince Buster,
Scientists,
Nico,
Ultravox,
Aaron Thompson,
Toni Rubio,
Stereo Dub,
Eve St. Jones,
U.S. Maple,
Swans,
Tom Boy,
Gerry Rafferty,
Erasure,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gichy Dan,
Danielle Patucci,
Kerrie Biddell,
Harmonia,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Residents,
Procol Harum,
The Count Five,
Agent Orange,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Dead C,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Kas Product,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
ABC,
The Golliwogs,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
PIL,
Gong,
Gastr Del Sol,
John Holt,
The Durutti Column,
Tomorrow,
The Remains,
Brick,
Drive Like Jehu,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Motions,
The Cure,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.