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 Belize and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 linndrum 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Mummies. All the underground hits.
All Theoretical Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smiths 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Peanut Butter Conspiracy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Modern Lovers,
Gastr Del Sol,
Rufus Thomas,
Scratch Acid,
Von Mondo,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Slits,
John Coltrane,
Tubeway Army,
CMW,
X-101,
La Düsseldorf,
The Grass Roots,
D'Angelo,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Ken Boothe,
Idris Muhammad,
Yellowson,
The Fuzztones,
The Kinks,
Eric Copeland,
Livin' Joy,
Duran Duran,
Pylon,
The Invisible,
The Gap Band,
the Association,
Boz Scaggs,
Absolute Body Control,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Blues Magoos,
Ultravox,
Gong,
Tropical Tobacco,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Kas Product,
Dawn Penn,
Nico,
Rekid,
Neu!,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
the Bar-Kays,
Stetsasonic,
Jacob Miller,
The Tremeloes,
Nas,
Jacques Brel,
Arab on Radar,
Pantytec,
Bobby Hutcherson,
ABBA,
Josef K,
Ice-T,
The Human League,
Roy Ayers,
Eve St. Jones,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Sister Nancy,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Alton Ellis,
Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye.
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.