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 South Sudan and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Masters at Work to the funk 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 FM Einheit. All the underground hits.
All cv313 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yusef Lateef record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Howard Jones,
Country Teasers,
Letta Mbulu,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Gun Club,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Wings,
Scrapy,
Judy Mowatt,
Derrick May,
The Last Poets,
Bobby Byrd,
Essential Logic,
The Martian,
Magazine,
The Dave Clark Five,
Drexciya,
Susan Cadogan,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
John Cale,
Surgeon,
Cluster,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cameo,
The Trojans,
Mad Mike,
Gerry Rafferty,
David Axelrod,
Chris Corsano,
Quando Quango,
the Slits,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
the Soft Cell,
World's Most,
Organ,
Young Marble Giants,
Dual Sessions,
Electric Prunes,
EPMD,
Joe Smooth,
Morten Harket,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Lakeside,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Girls At Our Best!,
LL Cool J,
The New Christs,
Eurythmics,
Vainqueur,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Amon Düül II,
The Toasters,
Godley & Creme,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Smoke,
Curtis Mayfield,
Anthony Braxton,
Grandmaster Flash,
Crime,
Tres Demented, Tres Demented, Tres Demented, Tres Demented.
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.