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 Angola and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Lou Reed 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 Don Cherry to the rock 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 Eyeless In Gaza. All the underground hits.
All Quantec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Gang Dance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radio Birdman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Donny Hathaway,
Interpol,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cluster,
The Gladiators,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Joy Division,
Ornette Coleman,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Fall,
The Slits,
Blossom Toes,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Howard Jones,
Bootsy Collins,
The Mojo Men,
The Fortunes,
Gichy Dan,
Pantytec,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Scratch Acid,
Sixth Finger,
Yusef Lateef,
Glenn Branca,
T. Rex,
Pierre Henry,
Magazine,
Spandau Ballet,
Half Japanese,
La Düsseldorf,
Parry Music,
Cecil Taylor,
Bush Tetras,
Joe Finger,
Dawn Penn,
Tommy Roe,
The Dave Clark Five,
Marcia Griffiths,
Khruangbin,
Jacques Brel,
Matthew Bourne,
Kenny Larkin,
Radio Birdman,
Audionom,
China Crisis,
Letta Mbulu,
Brick,
Groovy Waters,
Swell Maps,
Sister Nancy,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Doors,
Technova,
Amon Düül,
Black Pus,
Talk Talk,
Radiohead,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Alton Ellis,
Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks.
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.