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 Libya and from Hong Kong.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Wasted Youth to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Country Joe & The Fish. All the underground hits.
All The New Christs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Q and Not U 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kenny Larkin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Talk Talk,
Lindisfarne,
Johnny Osbourne,
Matthew Bourne,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
ABC,
Marcia Griffiths,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Barracudas,
Alice Coltrane,
Lalann,
New York Dolls,
L. Decosne,
Moss Icon,
Darondo,
New Order,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Vladislav Delay,
Morten Harket,
Siglo XX,
The Trojans,
Cal Tjader,
Ultra Naté,
Crash Course in Science,
T.S.O.L.,
T. Rex,
John Foxx,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Tom Boy,
Marine Girls,
Tubeway Army,
Sound Behaviour,
Crooked Eye,
Idris Muhammad,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Flipper,
Graham Central Station,
Joensuu 1685,
Black Moon,
the Normal,
The American Breed,
Easy Going,
Johnny Clarke,
Ohio Players,
The Motions,
Ronan,
The Count Five,
Jacques Brel,
the Slits,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Saints,
Royal Trux,
Masters at Work,
Deadbeat,
Grauzone,
The Knickerbockers,
Make Up,
The Gap Band,
The Fortunes,
Bauhaus,
Loose Ends,
Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama.
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.