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 Samoa and from Paris.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Siouxsie and the Banshees to the punk 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All R.M.O. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Holt 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 marimba and a clarinet 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 a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Vogues,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Second Layer,
Supertramp,
Basic Channel,
Jimmy McGriff,
Metal Thangz,
The Offenders,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Marvin Gaye,
Boredoms,
Goldenarms,
Yazoo,
Popol Vuh,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Erykah Badu,
The Stooges,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Fall,
Stetsasonic,
The Black Dice,
The Litter,
Man Eating Sloth,
Rotary Connection,
Jawbox,
Whodini,
OOIOO,
Frankie Knuckles,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sandy B,
Don Cherry,
Jandek,
Warsaw,
Kas Product,
The Angels of Light,
Harry Pussy,
Crispian St. Peters,
Banda Bassotti,
The Grass Roots,
Bobby Byrd,
New Order,
Newcleus,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Peter and Kerry,
EPMD,
Urselle,
The Skatalites,
Byron Stingily,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Morten Harket,
Bill Wells,
Siglo XX,
The Buckinghams,
Agent Orange,
Moss Icon,
Reagan Youth,
Ronnie Foster,
Rapeman,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart.
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.