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 Seychelles and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the güiro 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 Accadde A to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Electric Light Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All MC5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scrapy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 rhodes and a mellotron 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 güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro 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?
Tropical Tobacco,
X-Ray Spex,
Danielle Patucci,
Swell Maps,
The Dave Clark Five,
Althea and Donna,
New Age Steppers,
Yellowson,
Morten Harket,
The Dead C,
AZ,
The Pretty Things,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Magma,
Boredoms,
Radiopuhelimet,
Faust,
Roy Ayers,
Donny Hathaway,
Bizarre Inc.,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Alphaville,
Circle Jerks,
Suicide,
Rotary Connection,
Nick Fraelich,
Unwound,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ornette Coleman,
Ice-T,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Zeros,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Rakim,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Camouflage,
Blancmange,
Aloha Tigers,
Eden Ahbez,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Clear Light,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Sexual Harrassment,
Ohio Players,
The Beau Brummels,
Talk Talk,
Roger Hodgson,
Vainqueur,
Cameo,
10cc,
Bronski Beat,
Tres Demented,
Jimmy McGriff,
Bush Tetras,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Blackbyrds,
Bauhaus,
Surgeon,
Pulsallama,
Laurel Aitken,
Minnie Riperton,
Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling.
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.