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 Senegal and from Taipei.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Fela Kuti to the grunge 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 Dead Boys. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smiths record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stockholm Monsters,
Skaos,
Pylon,
Sex Pistols,
Bill Near,
The Kinks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Amazonics,
Unwound,
John Lydon,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
World's Most,
Whodini,
Nils Olav,
Joy Division,
Kayak,
La Düsseldorf,
T.S.O.L.,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Shadows of Knight,
Motorama,
Niagra,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Gap Band,
Vladislav Delay,
Drive Like Jehu,
Flipper,
Alison Limerick,
Can,
Black Bananas,
Pagans,
Moebius,
Thompson Twins,
the Bar-Kays,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Albert Ayler,
Blake Baxter,
Infiniti,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Delta 5,
Roxette,
Rosa Yemen,
The Trojans,
One Last Wish,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Procol Harum,
Basic Channel,
Outsiders,
The Cowsills,
The Smiths,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Gladiators,
Eden Ahbez,
Animal Collective,
Bizarre Inc.,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Interpol,
Franke,
Terrestrial Tones, Terrestrial Tones, Terrestrial Tones, Terrestrial Tones.
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.