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 Sri Lanka and from Woodstock.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 8 Eyed Spy to the punk 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 The Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All The Pretty Things tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Throbbing Gristle record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a MC5 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marcia Griffiths,
Kaleidoscope,
Jimmy McGriff,
Magazine,
Tears for Fears,
Visage,
Fela Kuti,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Pop Group,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Kas Product,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Sex Pistols,
Theoretical Girls,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Red Krayola,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Q and Not U,
Arcadia,
The Raincoats,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Flamin' Groovies,
Deadbeat,
Radiohead,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Kurtis Blow,
Swell Maps,
Peter and Kerry,
The Leaves,
Public Enemy,
Surgeon,
Tres Demented,
Ultra Naté,
X-Ray Spex,
The Mojo Men,
Blake Baxter,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Standells,
Subhumans,
Animal Collective,
Mo-Dettes,
Funky Four + One,
The Residents,
F. McDonald,
Warsaw,
Charles Mingus,
Minutemen,
Lebanon Hanover,
Joe Finger,
The Moleskins,
Blossom Toes,
Aloha Tigers,
The Buckinghams,
Amazonics,
Roy Ayers,
Harmonia,
Janne Schatter,
Lalo Schifrin,
Organ,
Wally Richardson,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Grey Daturas,
The Evens, The Evens, The Evens, The Evens.
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.