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 Luxembourg and from Edmonton.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Mumbai.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks to the rock 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 Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo. All the underground hits.
All Tropical Tobacco tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sun Ra Arkestra 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
The Cowsills,
The Pop Group,
The Doobie Brothers,
Slick Rick,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Erasure,
Von Mondo,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Massinfluence,
Bobby Womack,
EPMD,
Whodini,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
John Lydon,
Flash Fearless,
Terrestrial Tones,
Byron Stingily,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Alphaville,
The Skatalites,
The Vogues,
Lyres,
Con Funk Shun,
Mark Hollis,
The Kinks,
Sun City Girls,
The Smiths,
The Count Five,
Crispian St. Peters,
Royal Trux,
Scion,
The Selecter,
Warren Ellis,
Echospace,
Infiniti,
The Monochrome Set,
10cc,
The Happenings,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Adolescents,
Yazoo,
MC5,
Suburban Knight,
David McCallum,
The Seeds,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Nik Kershaw,
Tres Demented,
David Bowie,
Al Stewart,
Qualms,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Grey Daturas,
Robert Hood,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Fat Boys,
The Shadows of Knight,
Howard Jones,
The Red Krayola, The Red Krayola, The Red Krayola, The Red Krayola.
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.