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 Mozambique and from Hong Kong.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lagos.
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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Fela Kuti to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Ice-T tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thee Headcoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kango’s Stein Massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Clear Light,
New Order,
Main Source,
Minnie Riperton,
Black Flag,
Henry Cow,
Basic Channel,
Joe Smooth,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Electric Prunes,
Easy Going,
Suicide,
Funkadelic,
Johnny Osbourne,
Tres Demented,
Soulsonic Force,
Cameo,
Cheater Slicks,
Marcia Griffiths,
Janne Schatter,
Lucky Dragons,
the Normal,
Lindisfarne,
Niagra,
Eden Ahbez,
The Raincoats,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Real Kids,
Bluetip,
Blossom Toes,
Drive Like Jehu,
Stockholm Monsters,
The American Breed,
Yaz,
Charles Mingus,
Adolescents,
Wolf Eyes,
Deakin,
The Zeros,
Junior Murvin,
The Dead C,
Shoche,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Seeds,
In Retrospect,
Brothers Johnson,
Boz Scaggs,
The Count Five,
Aloha Tigers,
Severed Heads,
Zero Boys,
ABBA,
Young Marble Giants,
Delta 5,
the Germs,
Nas,
Reuben Wilson,
Marshall Jefferson,
PIL, PIL, PIL, PIL.
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.