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 Switzerland and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 organ 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 X-Ray Spex to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Lucky Dragons. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Intrusion record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a guitar 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 guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Monolake,
FM Einheit,
Crooked Eye,
Eric B and Rakim,
Organ,
Shoche,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Martian,
The Slits,
Peter & Gordon,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Ten City,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Pere Ubu,
OOIOO,
Sarah Menescal,
The Detroit Cobras,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Human League,
Simply Red,
Suburban Knight,
Harmonia,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ludus,
ABC,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
These Immortal Souls,
Audionom,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Unwound,
T. Rex,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Basic Channel,
The Monochrome Set,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Gastr Del Sol,
Isaac Hayes,
Ornette Coleman,
Intrusion,
PIL,
David Axelrod,
Zero Boys,
Tim Buckley,
Albert Ayler,
Liliput,
Bush Tetras,
Desert Stars,
Crispy Ambulance,
Crispian St. Peters,
Joey Negro,
The Fugs,
Japan,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Make Up,
Yusef Lateef,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Alice Coltrane,
Joyce Sims,
John Holt, John Holt, John Holt, John Holt.
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.