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 Guatemala and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Urselle to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gastr Del Sol. All the underground hits.
All Magazine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kenny Larkin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
David McCallum,
The Barracudas,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Wasted Youth,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Public Enemy,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Soul Sonic Force,
Lucky Dragons,
The Smoke,
Quadrant,
Masters at Work,
X-Ray Spex,
The Tremeloes,
Jandek,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Supertramp,
Electric Prunes,
La Düsseldorf,
E-Dancer,
Harmonia,
Roger Hodgson,
Peter & Gordon,
Faust,
the Swans,
Erasure,
Erykah Badu,
Echospace,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The American Breed,
Sarah Menescal,
Oblivians,
Nation of Ulysses,
KRS-One,
Nirvana,
The J.B.'s,
Sällskapet,
Kerri Chandler,
The Knickerbockers,
Outsiders,
The Modern Lovers,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Sparks,
The Star Department,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Soulsonic Force,
The Cure,
Eurythmics,
The Flesh Eaters,
Drive Like Jehu,
Maleditus Sound,
These Immortal Souls,
The Gories,
Andrew Hill,
Isaac Hayes,
Bill Wells,
Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane, Big Daddy Kane.
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.