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 Armenia and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 808 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 Pulsallama to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Stiv Bators. All the underground hits.
All Lou Reed & John Cale tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar 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 snare and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The American Breed,
Pantaleimon,
Sam Rivers,
Silicon Teens,
Tubeway Army,
Freddie Wadling,
Bronski Beat,
Hashim,
Nirvana,
Pharoah Sanders,
Pet Shop Boys,
Roger Hodgson,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Hoover,
Bluetip,
Sex Pistols,
The Human League,
The Electric Prunes,
Wings,
John Coltrane,
Sound Behaviour,
Altered Images,
Tres Demented,
Swans,
Kenny Larkin,
Deakin,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Arthur Verocai,
The Knickerbockers,
Bad Manners,
The Offenders,
Piero Umiliani,
Donald Byrd,
The Stooges,
Porter Ricks,
K-Klass,
The Dirtbombs,
Rites of Spring,
Dead Boys,
Dorothy Ashby,
Echospace,
LL Cool J,
Eddi Front,
Los Fastidios,
Simply Red,
The Grass Roots,
The Cowsills,
X-102,
EPMD,
Vainqueur,
The Blackbyrds,
Quadrant,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Cecil Taylor,
Boz Scaggs,
Mad Mike,
Gang Gang Dance,
Idris Muhammad,
Barclay James Harvest,
Erasure,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.