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 Pakistan and from Glasgow.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Suburban Knight to the disco 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 Stetsasonic. All the underground hits.
All Toni Rubio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Erasure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Monks,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bobby Sherman,
Ice-T,
Second Layer,
Duran Duran,
Rod Modell,
The Happenings,
Idris Muhammad,
Cameo,
Guru Guru,
Lou Reed,
Oneida,
Bobby Womack,
Stiv Bators,
Thee Headcoats,
Kas Product,
Rites of Spring,
Groovy Waters,
The Red Krayola,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
China Crisis,
Grauzone,
Pussy Galore,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Don Cherry,
The Doors,
The Last Poets,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
H. Thieme,
Max Romeo,
Anakelly,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Human League,
The Misunderstood,
Sister Nancy,
Eric Dolphy,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Flipper,
Aloha Tigers,
The Gun Club,
Ultimate Spinach,
Mandrill,
Ten City,
Marine Girls,
The Motions,
Tim Buckley,
Altered Images,
Barbara Tucker,
Absolute Body Control,
Sparks,
Joensuu 1685,
Faust,
the Slits,
Pantytec,
the Soft Cell,
E-Dancer,
Lebanon Hanover,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Inner City,
Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse.
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.