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 Djibouti and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Normal to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Jacob Miller tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Au Pairs 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blues Magoos record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sex Pistols,
Monolake,
Jacob Miller,
Young Marble Giants,
Big Daddy Kane,
Suburban Knight,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Donny Hathaway,
Andrew Hill,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Gregory Isaacs,
Black Pus,
Gong,
Eden Ahbez,
The Detroit Cobras,
Joe Smooth,
New Order,
Neil Young,
the Normal,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Searchers,
The Golliwogs,
Don Cherry,
Jandek,
Dark Day,
Excepter,
The Blues Magoos,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sugar Minott,
Grandmaster Flash,
Procol Harum,
Camouflage,
Brass Construction,
The Gladiators,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Rites of Spring,
Donald Byrd,
Erykah Badu,
Babytalk,
Bobby Womack,
Ten City,
Fluxion,
LL Cool J,
Average White Band,
Kaleidoscope,
Magma,
Duran Duran,
Roy Ayers,
The New Christs,
Cymande,
Mars,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Aural Exciters,
Sarah Menescal,
Rotary Connection,
Susan Cadogan,
Brick,
The Modern Lovers,
Maurizio,
the Bar-Kays,
Boredoms,
Idris Muhammad,
Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw.
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.