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 Swaziland and from Houston.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Blake Baxter to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Tommy Roe. All the underground hits.
All OOIOO tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Godley & Creme 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Albert Ayler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
The Litter,
Rod Modell,
Motorama,
Ken Boothe,
Crash Course in Science,
Electric Prunes,
The Music Machine,
The Beau Brummels,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Spoonie Gee,
Parry Music,
Eli Mardock,
Rufus Thomas,
Accadde A,
Dual Sessions,
Bang On A Can,
Freddie Wadling,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Silicon Teens,
Jacques Brel,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Fifty Foot Hose,
kango's stein massive,
Ultra Naté,
Thompson Twins,
Ultimate Spinach,
Ponytail,
Inner City,
Mars,
Cal Tjader,
PIL,
Piero Umiliani,
Blake Baxter,
The Motions,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Crispy Ambulance,
Donald Byrd,
Pharoah Sanders,
Delta 5,
Adolescents,
Maurizio,
Nik Kershaw,
Cluster,
The Searchers,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Slits,
Gang Gang Dance,
Dorothy Ashby,
Suburban Knight,
Audionom,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Theoretical Girls,
Crooked Eye,
New Age Steppers,
Angry Samoans,
Mad Mike,
Joe Finger,
The Move,
X-Ray Spex,
The Kinks,
The Dead C,
Urselle, Urselle, Urselle, Urselle.
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.