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 Mauritania and from Houston.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 marimba 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 Boz Scaggs to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Banda Bassotti. All the underground hits.
All La Düsseldorf tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Doors record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 guitar and a snare 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 harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dennis Brown,
Easy Going,
The Fuzztones,
Nils Olav,
Patti Smith,
The Sonics,
Susan Cadogan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rufus Thomas,
Warsaw,
Blossom Toes,
Unrelated Segments,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Jerry's Kids,
Pulsallama,
Gong,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Niagra,
Intrusion,
Rod Modell,
Kas Product,
Interpol,
Average White Band,
Half Japanese,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
the Bar-Kays,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Buckinghams,
Eric B and Rakim,
Idris Muhammad,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Vainqueur,
the Human League,
The Dead C,
Sun Ra,
K-Klass,
Rhythm & Sound,
Animal Collective,
The Moody Blues,
Robert Görl,
Duran Duran,
The Fall,
The Move,
Minutemen,
The Doors,
Aaron Thompson,
The Misunderstood,
Ornette Coleman,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Oblivians,
The Electric Prunes,
Derrick Morgan,
Derrick May,
Toni Rubio,
Bobby Byrd,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Surgeon,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Gun Club, The Gun Club, The Gun Club, The Gun Club.
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.