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 Thailand and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Jakarta.
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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Graham Central Station. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Parry Music record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rakim,
Robert Hood,
Nirvana,
Duran Duran,
Don Cherry,
Letta Mbulu,
Kerri Chandler,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Franke,
Vladislav Delay,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Modern Lovers,
Minutemen,
Urselle,
X-102,
Surgeon,
Al Stewart,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Marmalade,
Silicon Teens,
CMW,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Scott Walker,
Ten City,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Gladiators,
This Heat,
Nico,
Aloha Tigers,
Pharoah Sanders,
Pantaleimon,
Camouflage,
Kool Moe Dee,
Oblivians,
MDC,
Theoretical Girls,
The Blackbyrds,
The Real Kids,
Ronnie Foster,
The Invisible,
JFA,
ABC,
Cal Tjader,
Neil Young,
Alice Coltrane,
Interpol,
Ultravox,
Brass Construction,
Electric Prunes,
Gichy Dan,
Barbara Tucker,
Girls At Our Best!,
Eric B and Rakim,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Fort Wilson Riot,
X-Ray Spex,
8 Eyed Spy,
Brand Nubian,
Amon Düül II,
Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick.
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.