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 Austria and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Stockholm.
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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Pulsallama to the dance kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 ABC. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kool Moe Dee record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marvin Gaye record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spandau Ballet,
Kerri Chandler,
Curtis Mayfield,
Soft Machine,
Eden Ahbez,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Robert Wyatt,
Silicon Teens,
Big Daddy Kane,
Rotary Connection,
Ken Boothe,
Model 500,
Brothers Johnson,
Severed Heads,
The Walker Brothers,
Anthony Braxton,
Cymande,
Barbara Tucker,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Lucky Dragons,
Susan Cadogan,
New Age Steppers,
MC5,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pantytec,
Eve St. Jones,
David McCallum,
Mad Mike,
Marine Girls,
The Motions,
James White and The Blacks,
Glambeats Corp.,
Tommy Roe,
Mr. Review,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
the Slits,
The Divine Comedy,
The United States of America,
Outsiders,
Donald Byrd,
Eurythmics,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Goldenarms,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Modern Lovers,
Donny Hathaway,
Saccharine Trust,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Toasters,
Bootsy Collins,
The Techniques,
Infiniti,
The Associates,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Harmonia,
Little Man,
Magazine,
The Black Dice,
The Tremeloes,
Janne Schatter,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Shadows of Knight,
Simply Red,
Easy Going,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.