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 Laos and from Delhi.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Johnny Clarke to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Stereo Dub tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quantec 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Connie Case,
Gang of Four,
Tom Boy,
Warsaw,
Robert Wyatt,
Aural Exciters,
Q and Not U,
Be Bop Deluxe,
UT,
Radiohead,
The Gap Band,
Jeru the Damaja,
Johnny Osbourne,
Wasted Youth,
Sun Ra,
Darondo,
Index,
Accadde A,
Minutemen,
The Stooges,
The J.B.'s,
The Fugs,
Main Source,
Sound Behaviour,
Camberwell Now,
Grandmaster Flash,
Iggy Pop,
Au Pairs,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Oneida,
The Alarm Clocks,
Black Moon,
Lou Christie,
The Divine Comedy,
Bang On A Can,
Robert Görl,
The Moleskins,
Henry Cow,
Fat Boys,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Godley & Creme,
Kaleidoscope,
Television Personalities,
Byron Stingily,
Kenny Larkin,
Mr. Review,
The Dave Clark Five,
Whodini,
One Last Wish,
B.T. Express,
Boredoms,
Bizarre Inc.,
Kayak,
Michelle Simonal,
Sandy B,
Second Layer,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Marine Girls,
Infiniti, Infiniti, Infiniti, Infiniti.
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.