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 Maldives and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Nation of Ulysses to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Yaz. All the underground hits.
All The Fugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Techniques record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Television Personalities,
Joensuu 1685,
Section 25,
L. Decosne,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Buckinghams,
Barrington Levy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
the Association,
Josef K,
Radiopuhelimet,
Blake Baxter,
Absolute Body Control,
The Names,
Prince Buster,
Metal Thangz,
New Order,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Alarm Clocks,
Donny Hathaway,
Quadrant,
The Fugs,
Chris Corsano,
The Fall,
Delta 5,
Marc Almond,
The Saints,
Aloha Tigers,
The Move,
Depeche Mode,
Magma,
Johnny Osbourne,
Crooked Eye,
The Motions,
Tubeway Army,
Black Moon,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Lalo Schifrin,
10cc,
The Victims,
Sight & Sound,
Q and Not U,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Leaves,
Suburban Knight,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
John Foxx,
Don Cherry,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Mummies,
Rakim,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Zapp,
Circle Jerks,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Tropical Tobacco,
Nirvana,
In Retrospect,
ABBA,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.