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 Kuwait and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Glasgow.
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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Zeros to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Warren Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Patti Smith,
Mad Mike,
The Sound,
The Black Dice,
The Fire Engines,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Dual Sessions,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Byron Stingily,
Eve St. Jones,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Fall,
Flash Fearless,
Television,
Roxette,
Sister Nancy,
Dark Day,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Sun City Girls,
Warsaw,
Lalo Schifrin,
JFA,
Loose Ends,
Bad Manners,
Depeche Mode,
Anthony Braxton,
Marc Almond,
E-Dancer,
Excepter,
Connie Case,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Pantytec,
Clear Light,
Moby Grape,
Flamin' Groovies,
Subhumans,
The Barracudas,
Arab on Radar,
Jacques Brel,
the Association,
Suburban Knight,
Absolute Body Control,
Stiv Bators,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Martian,
Andrew Hill,
The Mummies,
China Crisis,
Piero Umiliani,
Silicon Teens,
Bootsy Collins,
Tubeway Army,
Pantaleimon,
the Human League,
Black Flag,
Duran Duran,
New Order,
Smog,
The Index,
Bluetip,
Chris & Cosey,
Neu!,
The New Christs,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.