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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Accra.
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 mellotron 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 Circle Jerks to the electroclash 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 Louis and Bebe Barron. All the underground hits.
All Morten Harket tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Monolake record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Byrd,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Marmalade,
Rhythm & Sound,
F. McDonald,
Flash Fearless,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Minutemen,
Gabor Szabo,
Soul II Soul,
Fatback Band,
Dual Sessions,
Severed Heads,
Eric B and Rakim,
In Retrospect,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Fela Kuti,
Archie Shepp,
Frankie Knuckles,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Yellowson,
John Coltrane,
Rakim,
Warsaw,
Barbara Tucker,
Rosa Yemen,
Barrington Levy,
La Düsseldorf,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Pharoah Sanders,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Sonny Sharrock,
Dennis Brown,
The Young Rascals,
Arthur Verocai,
John Holt,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Simply Red,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
New Age Steppers,
Marine Girls,
The Stooges,
Drive Like Jehu,
Warren Ellis,
Gil Scott Heron,
Icehouse,
Jacques Brel,
Dawn Penn,
Mars,
Minny Pops,
The Sound,
Joy Division,
Morten Harket,
Gang Gang Dance,
Pole,
David Axelrod,
UT,
Surgeon,
The Vogues,
Bobby Sherman,
Nick Fraelich,
Prince Buster,
Johnny Osbourne,
Roy Ayers,
Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding.
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.