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 Bangladesh and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the snare 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 Accadde A to the crunk 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 Rekid. All the underground hits.
All Flamin' Groovies tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dual Sessions 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Toasters,
Crime,
Grandmaster Flash,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Pretty Things,
Gang Starr,
Jacob Miller,
John Coltrane,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Spoonie Gee,
Connie Case,
Infiniti,
Fugazi,
Isaac Hayes,
Moby Grape,
the Swans,
Black Sheep,
Soul II Soul,
Fad Gadget,
Henry Cow,
The Motions,
The Skatalites,
Alton Ellis,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Letta Mbulu,
Fat Boys,
Pierre Henry,
The Gun Club,
Judy Mowatt,
The Zeros,
Public Image Ltd.,
AZ,
Rakim,
Mars,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Cure,
Reagan Youth,
In Retrospect,
The New Christs,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Newcleus,
The Red Krayola,
Harmonia,
The Black Dice,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Flesh Eaters,
Flash Fearless,
Sugar Minott,
Black Pus,
Severed Heads,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Misunderstood,
Derrick Morgan,
Monks,
Boz Scaggs,
Inner City,
Gregory Isaacs,
Ten City,
Skarface,
The Evens, The Evens, The Evens, The Evens.
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.