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 Guyana and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide 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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Siglo XX to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Rekid tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Delta 5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Loose Ends,
Sight & Sound,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Busters,
Fad Gadget,
a-ha,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Residents,
Freddie Wadling,
Godley & Creme,
Q and Not U,
Pole,
The Velvet Underground,
In Retrospect,
Grandmaster Flash,
Black Sheep,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Misunderstood,
8 Eyed Spy,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
These Immortal Souls,
Niagra,
Dark Day,
Wings,
Can,
Model 500,
Boogie Down Productions,
Avey Tare,
Glenn Branca,
EPMD,
Cameo,
Alphaville,
Spandau Ballet,
June of 44,
Delta 5,
Roxy Music,
Hot Snakes,
Minor Threat,
Sex Pistols,
Jesper Dahlback,
Ultra Naté,
Todd Rundgren,
CMW,
Darondo,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Quadrant,
Black Moon,
Scientists,
Ten City,
Fluxion,
Rekid,
Piero Umiliani,
Icehouse,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Mandrill,
Ituana,
Organ,
Lebanon Hanover, Lebanon Hanover, Lebanon Hanover, Lebanon Hanover.
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.