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 Macedonia and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Eden Ahbez to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Rhythim Is Rhythim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Whodini record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an organ and a güiro 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 snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharoah Sanders,
Terry Callier,
The Names,
Albert Ayler,
the Association,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Aloha Tigers,
Freddie Wadling,
Sister Nancy,
Rufus Thomas,
Alice Coltrane,
PIL,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Howard Jones,
Rites of Spring,
John Lydon,
Royal Trux,
Roxy Music,
Gerry Rafferty,
Sällskapet,
Big Daddy Kane,
D'Angelo,
Gang of Four,
Wasted Youth,
The Index,
L. Decosne,
Faust,
The Invisible,
John Coltrane,
Second Layer,
10cc,
48th St. Collective,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Girls At Our Best!,
Marvin Gaye,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Shoche,
These Immortal Souls,
The Buckinghams,
Schoolly D,
Public Enemy,
Erykah Badu,
Black Sheep,
Ornette Coleman,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Juan Atkins,
Connie Case,
Mark Hollis,
Eric Copeland,
Suburban Knight,
The Doors,
Moebius,
Arcadia,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bluetip,
the Soft Cell,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Raincoats,
Boogie Down Productions,
Television Personalities,
The Fall,
Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico.
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.