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 Slovakia and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Boredoms to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Henry Cow. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soulsonic Force record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeru the Damaja,
Ossler,
Radio Birdman,
Erykah Badu,
Aaron Thompson,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Second Layer,
Bobby Womack,
Derrick Morgan,
The Techniques,
Eurythmics,
Swans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Offenders,
Silicon Teens,
Sarah Menescal,
David Axelrod,
These Immortal Souls,
The Kinks,
Severed Heads,
Hoover,
D'Angelo,
Desert Stars,
Crime,
The Dead C,
Sonny Sharrock,
Lyres,
Agitation Free,
The Busters,
Marcia Griffiths,
Blake Baxter,
X-102,
Eric Dolphy,
The Count Five,
Kaleidoscope,
Nils Olav,
Joyce Sims,
Mr. Review,
Quando Quango,
the Sonics,
Boredoms,
The Cure,
Eden Ahbez,
The Associates,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Electric Prunes,
The Mojo Men,
Laurel Aitken,
Television,
John Coltrane,
The Gap Band,
Livin' Joy,
Qualms,
Ralphi Rosario,
Freddie Wadling,
Gregory Isaacs,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Sonics,
Junior Murvin,
Groovy Waters,
Janne Schatter,
Delta 5,
Erasure, Erasure, Erasure, Erasure.
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.