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 Uzbekistan and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Michael McDonald 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 Black Moon to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Essential Logic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Misunderstood,
Mantronix,
The Smoke,
Girls At Our Best!,
Brick,
Ten City,
Barclay James Harvest,
Altered Images,
Swell Maps,
Moby Grape,
Throbbing Gristle,
the Fania All-Stars,
Byron Stingily,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Q65,
Symarip,
Lindisfarne,
Bluetip,
Hasil Adkins,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Wasted Youth,
Pagans,
Jawbox,
Wings,
Nation of Ulysses,
Public Image Ltd.,
Isaac Hayes,
Rapeman,
The Motions,
Goldenarms,
Hashim,
Duran Duran,
Gichy Dan,
Clear Light,
Aaron Thompson,
Dead Boys,
Model 500,
Joy Division,
Soul II Soul,
Banda Bassotti,
Gabor Szabo,
This Heat,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Marine Girls,
Faraquet,
Ronan,
Qualms,
EPMD,
The Moody Blues,
Boz Scaggs,
X-Ray Spex,
Moebius,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Cheater Slicks,
The Fortunes,
Big Daddy Kane,
the Bar-Kays,
Kurtis Blow,
The Move, The Move, The Move, The Move.
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.