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 Norway and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the marimba 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 Massinfluence to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Pole. All the underground hits.
All Simply Red tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Flag record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an arpeggiator 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 marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Scrapy,
KRS-One,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Morten Harket,
Minutemen,
The Sonics,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Arcadia,
Intrusion,
The Slits,
Liliput,
Drexciya,
Kerri Chandler,
Deakin,
Grauzone,
Alphaville,
R.M.O.,
Colin Newman,
Alice Coltrane,
The Star Department,
Q and Not U,
Parry Music,
Bronski Beat,
Carl Craig,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Section 25,
The Beau Brummels,
Sparks,
Roxy Music,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Aural Exciters,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Echospace,
EPMD,
The Gories,
Lebanon Hanover,
Minnie Riperton,
Marcia Griffiths,
Roy Ayers,
The Neon Judgement,
Porter Ricks,
Half Japanese,
Amon Düül,
The Misunderstood,
Second Layer,
Surgeon,
Angry Samoans,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Blossom Toes,
Pharoah Sanders,
Robert Görl,
Beasts of Bourbon,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Y Pants,
Max Romeo, Max Romeo, Max Romeo, Max Romeo.
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.