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 Bhutan and from Beijing.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Quantec to the electroclash 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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All Amazonics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scan 7,
Crash Course in Science,
A Certain Ratio,
K-Klass,
Swell Maps,
Carl Craig,
Talk Talk,
Jacques Brel,
Public Enemy,
Bauhaus,
Wings,
Ituana,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Donny Hathaway,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Godley & Creme,
The Real Kids,
Idris Muhammad,
T. Rex,
Rotary Connection,
Danielle Patucci,
Vainqueur,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Pere Ubu,
Johnny Osbourne,
Youth Brigade,
Pulsallama,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Monolake,
MDC,
The Zeros,
Can,
the Association,
Derrick May,
Patti Smith,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Colin Newman,
Henry Cow,
Ronan,
Malaria!,
Bizarre Inc.,
Pet Shop Boys,
Essential Logic,
Jerry's Kids,
Camouflage,
Swans,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lungfish,
Mission of Burma,
Shuggie Otis,
Mr. Review,
Section 25,
The Doobie Brothers,
Nas,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Black Flag,
Thompson Twins,
Bronski Beat,
Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat.
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.