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 Albania and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 synthesizer 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 Ajijia Myrayebe to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Animal Collective. All the underground hits.
All DJ Style tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mandrill 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Colin Newman 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?
Harpers Bizarre,
Jeff Mills,
U.S. Maple,
Motorama,
The Modern Lovers,
Wally Richardson,
Alice Coltrane,
John Foxx,
H. Thieme,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Kaleidoscope,
Fatback Band,
Audionom,
Matthew Bourne,
Sun Ra,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Angels of Light,
X-101,
Lou Reed,
Gang Starr,
The Zeros,
Television Personalities,
Gang Gang Dance,
Marine Girls,
Maleditus Sound,
Parry Music,
Black Flag,
The Remains,
Crime,
DNA,
Deepchord,
Mission of Burma,
The Monks,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Brick,
Ice-T,
Brothers Johnson,
Swans,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Soft Machine,
Judy Mowatt,
Rufus Thomas,
Tubeway Army,
Sun City Girls,
kango's stein massive,
Electric Light Orchestra,
a-ha,
Peter and Kerry,
Howard Jones,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Grass Roots,
Hot Snakes,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Wake,
Kerri Chandler,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Youth Brigade,
the Slits,
Erykah Badu,
the Fania All-Stars,
Heaven 17,
Metal Thangz,
Skriet, Skriet, Skriet, Skriet.
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.