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 Cambodia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Lou Reed & John Cale to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Bush Tetras. All the underground hits.
All Jeff Lynne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Chocolate Watch Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Amon Düül II,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Jeff Mills,
the Bar-Kays,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Alarm Clocks,
Donny Hathaway,
The Moleskins,
The Vogues,
Index,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Joyce Sims,
DJ Style,
Hoover,
Archie Shepp,
Q65,
Pole,
Parry Music,
The Kinks,
Rod Modell,
Cheater Slicks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Outsiders,
Black Sheep,
CMW,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Gang Green,
Hashim,
The Fire Engines,
The Doors,
KRS-One,
June Days,
June of 44,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Chrome,
Gang Gang Dance,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Raincoats,
Ohio Players,
Basic Channel,
The Electric Prunes,
Arthur Verocai,
Ultravox,
Barbara Tucker,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Marine Girls,
Half Japanese,
The American Breed,
Aloha Tigers,
Massinfluence,
Animal Collective,
Pet Shop Boys,
Boogie Down Productions,
Underground Resistance,
Dual Sessions,
PIL,
The Music Machine,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Soul II Soul,
Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike.
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.