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 Canada and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Smog to the grime 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 Eden Ahbez. All the underground hits.
All Aloha Tigers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Reagan Youth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pagans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Hot Snakes,
DJ Sneak,
The Mummies,
Ronnie Foster,
Grey Daturas,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Soulsonic Force,
Cheater Slicks,
Roy Ayers,
Marvin Gaye,
Barrington Levy,
Prince Buster,
D'Angelo,
the Swans,
48th St. Collective,
Audionom,
The Electric Prunes,
Todd Terry,
The Pop Group,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Sound,
Carl Craig,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Rhythm & Sound,
the Germs,
Black Flag,
The Music Machine,
Boz Scaggs,
The Smiths,
Terrestrial Tones,
Metal Thangz,
Porter Ricks,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ossler,
Ten City,
Little Man,
KRS-One,
The Cramps,
ABBA,
Khruangbin,
EPMD,
Maleditus Sound,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Swell Maps,
Japan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Quadrant,
Hoover,
Donny Hathaway,
Oblivians,
Gong,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Country Teasers,
Lyres,
Index,
Brothers Johnson,
Massinfluence,
Eurythmics,
Skaos,
Grandmaster Flash,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.