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 East Timor and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 oboe 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 Siglo XX to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Pretty Things. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Tremeloes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Ken Boothe,
Pet Shop Boys,
Young Marble Giants,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Skaos,
Rapeman,
Cymande,
Second Layer,
The Gap Band,
Susan Cadogan,
Pole,
Robert Görl,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
the Association,
The Slits,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dawn Penn,
Warsaw,
Country Teasers,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Godley & Creme,
Sparks,
Sam Rivers,
Barclay James Harvest,
the Soft Cell,
the Sonics,
Bootsy Collins,
Monks,
Deakin,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Black Flag,
A Certain Ratio,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Trumans Water,
Absolute Body Control,
Radiopuhelimet,
Soft Machine,
AZ,
Joensuu 1685,
Drive Like Jehu,
E-Dancer,
Neu!,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
R.M.O.,
Panda Bear,
X-Ray Spex,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Animal Collective,
Brass Construction,
Sandy B,
Idris Muhammad,
Moebius,
The Selecter,
Arab on Radar,
Tommy Roe,
The Seeds,
Crash Course in Science,
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow.
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.