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 Malawi and from Seoul.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Copenhagen.
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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Monochrome Set 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 The Fugs. All the underground hits.
All The Mojo Men tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Technova 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a mellotron 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 theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Axelrod,
the Slits,
New Order,
Carl Craig,
The Slackers,
Harpers Bizarre,
Boredoms,
Alton Ellis,
Lungfish,
Tomorrow,
The Buckinghams,
Public Enemy,
The New Christs,
Erykah Badu,
Alice Coltrane,
Eve St. Jones,
Eli Mardock,
Amon Düül,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Arcadia,
Bobbi Humphrey,
World's Most,
The Blues Magoos,
Gabor Szabo,
Eurythmics,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Soulsonic Force,
Mars,
KRS-One,
Blossom Toes,
H. Thieme,
Kerrie Biddell,
Visage,
CMW,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Mr. Review,
Inner City,
Glambeats Corp.,
Quadrant,
Johnny Clarke,
The Martian,
Skaos,
Absolute Body Control,
Suburban Knight,
DJ Sneak,
Young Marble Giants,
Wolf Eyes,
Scientists,
The Smiths,
The Raincoats,
David McCallum,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Blackbyrds,
Donald Byrd,
Joyce Sims,
Q65,
Kenny Larkin,
Echospace,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.