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 Gabon and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Judy Mowatt to the funk 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 Hasil Adkins. All the underground hits.
All The Music Machine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Outsiders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare 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 synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marshall Jefferson,
The Cure,
Blake Baxter,
Kevin Saunderson,
B.T. Express,
Prince Buster,
The Electric Prunes,
Joyce Sims,
Sam Rivers,
The Fortunes,
Sun Ra,
Guru Guru,
Supertramp,
Von Mondo,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Swans,
Tom Boy,
Alison Limerick,
Jandek,
Ten City,
Surgeon,
Scientists,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Y Pants,
Silicon Teens,
Smog,
The Smoke,
Excepter,
Pole,
New York Dolls,
Scrapy,
Junior Murvin,
Slick Rick,
Banda Bassotti,
Harpers Bizarre,
Johnny Clarke,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
T.S.O.L.,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Knickerbockers,
Organ,
Reuben Wilson,
Soulsonic Force,
Kurtis Blow,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Erykah Badu,
The Move,
Porter Ricks,
The Toasters,
Simply Red,
Gang of Four,
Harmonia,
The Happenings,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Chris & Cosey,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Gap Band,
Lucky Dragons,
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan.
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.