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 Namibia and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic 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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the theremin 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 Tom Boy to the crunk 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 Symarip. All the underground hits.
All Easy Going tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gap Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 rhodes and a harpsichord 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 spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultra Naté,
World's Most,
LL Cool J,
The Golliwogs,
Tubeway Army,
Tom Boy,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Jesper Dahlback,
MDC,
Spandau Ballet,
Gang Green,
The American Breed,
Pantytec,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Erykah Badu,
Slick Rick,
Sly & The Family Stone,
X-102,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Desert Stars,
Easy Going,
Leonard Cohen,
AZ,
Los Fastidios,
Index,
Icehouse,
Jacob Miller,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Roger Hodgson,
Sex Pistols,
Brothers Johnson,
Chris & Cosey,
Ornette Coleman,
Monolake,
Janne Schatter,
Harry Pussy,
Subhumans,
Curtis Mayfield,
Charles Mingus,
Whodini,
A Certain Ratio,
Maleditus Sound,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Robert Wyatt,
Sugar Minott,
JFA,
Rosa Yemen,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Kaleidoscope,
Rotary Connection,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Saccharine Trust,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Trumans Water,
DNA,
Terry Callier,
Sparks,
Man Parrish,
Drexciya,
Franke,
Surgeon,
Dave Gahan,
Q and Not U, Q and Not U, Q and Not U, Q and Not U.
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.