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 Congo and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Gichy Dan to the grunge 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 Ohio Players. All the underground hits.
All Drive Like Jehu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minor Threat record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Bar-Kays record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television Personalities,
Cameo,
Yellowson,
ABC,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Jacques Brel,
Half Japanese,
Sun City Girls,
Scratch Acid,
The Gun Club,
Tomorrow,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Thee Headcoats,
Scientists,
Gerry Rafferty,
Faraquet,
Warsaw,
Dawn Penn,
The Beau Brummels,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ultravox,
Barclay James Harvest,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lebanon Hanover,
Newcleus,
Angry Samoans,
Massinfluence,
Blake Baxter,
EPMD,
Albert Ayler,
Los Fastidios,
Cluster,
Robert Hood,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Derrick May,
Cymande,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gong,
Ultra Naté,
Robert Wyatt,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Chris & Cosey,
Sight & Sound,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Drexciya,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Mo-Dettes,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Dave Clark Five,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Fat Boys,
Television,
Buzzcocks,
The Walker Brothers,
Aswad,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lalann,
Roger Hodgson,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.