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 Comoros and from Mumbai.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Main Source to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. All the underground hits.
All Marshall Jefferson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reuben Wilson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
John Cale,
The Smoke,
The Cramps,
Stereo Dub,
DNA,
Juan Atkins,
Throbbing Gristle,
Hashim,
Scan 7,
Tommy Roe,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Iggy Pop,
Saccharine Trust,
Half Japanese,
Adolescents,
Wolf Eyes,
Gastr Del Sol,
Das Ding,
This Heat,
Vainqueur,
Swans,
Jeff Mills,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Zeros,
Charles Mingus,
Minutemen,
Bill Wells,
the Normal,
The Blackbyrds,
One Last Wish,
Lower 48,
The Trojans,
Dennis Brown,
Fatback Band,
Goldenarms,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Subhumans,
Jacob Miller,
Aaron Thompson,
Icehouse,
The Black Dice,
The Victims,
Pole,
The Five Americans,
Pantaleimon,
Monks,
LL Cool J,
David Axelrod,
Scion,
Fugazi,
The Alarm Clocks,
Flash Fearless,
The Count Five,
New York Dolls,
Franke,
Kerrie Biddell,
Janne Schatter,
Porter Ricks,
Howard Jones,
Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood.
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.