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 Benin and from Columbus.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Bush Tetras to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Sad Lovers and Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sixth Finger record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin 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 clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
Quando Quango,
Byron Stingily,
Bauhaus,
Japan,
Brass Construction,
Radio Birdman,
Blancmange,
Nation of Ulysses,
Piero Umiliani,
Lalo Schifrin,
One Last Wish,
Blossom Toes,
Agent Orange,
Crash Course in Science,
Gang Gang Dance,
Ice-T,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
David Axelrod,
Negative Approach,
The Saints,
La Düsseldorf,
The Index,
The Smoke,
Arcadia,
The Young Rascals,
Drexciya,
Television,
The Residents,
Kayak,
X-102,
Terrestrial Tones,
This Heat,
Chrome,
Albert Ayler,
Maleditus Sound,
Subhumans,
UT,
Das Ding,
Alton Ellis,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jeff Mills,
Jawbox,
Suburban Knight,
Matthew Halsall,
Newcleus,
Sällskapet,
Godley & Creme,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Brand Nubian,
B.T. Express,
June of 44,
Desert Stars,
Zapp,
Crime,
Surgeon,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Sex Pistols,
Black Bananas,
Marshall Jefferson,
Pagans, Pagans, Pagans, Pagans.
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.