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 Lithuania and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Moby Grape to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Silicon Teens record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a rhodes 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 marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Piero Umiliani,
Nas,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Kinks,
Sam Rivers,
Hasil Adkins,
X-Ray Spex,
Nick Fraelich,
Deepchord,
Lindisfarne,
Man Parrish,
Mars,
China Crisis,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Roxy Music,
Arthur Verocai,
Sun City Girls,
Animal Collective,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Tremeloes,
Minny Pops,
Alison Limerick,
Ultra Naté,
The Blues Magoos,
Soul II Soul,
Adolescents,
Chrome,
The Red Krayola,
Theoretical Girls,
Easy Going,
Reuben Wilson,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Pagans,
F. McDonald,
The Gories,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
ABC,
Organ,
Negative Approach,
Second Layer,
FM Einheit,
Underground Resistance,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
These Immortal Souls,
The Cowsills,
Jacques Brel,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
New York Dolls,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Soft Cell,
Reagan Youth,
The Offenders,
Scrapy,
Archie Shepp,
Erykah Badu,
Jeff Mills,
Monolake,
Man Eating Sloth,
Parry Music,
Iggy Pop,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.