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 Chad and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 The Mojo Men to the techno 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 Theoretical Girls. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Hutcherson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb 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 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lucky Dragons,
Howard Jones,
Joensuu 1685,
Faust,
Ponytail,
Grey Daturas,
Black Bananas,
The Slackers,
Blancmange,
DJ Style,
Echospace,
The Cure,
cv313,
Stockholm Monsters,
Spoonie Gee,
Henry Cow,
The J.B.'s,
The Martian,
The Sonics,
Delta 5,
Lungfish,
Lyres,
Byron Stingily,
Leonard Cohen,
Ultra Naté,
48th St. Collective,
Eurythmics,
The Fall,
The Pretty Things,
The Gun Club,
Ronan,
The Mighty Diamonds,
These Immortal Souls,
Lebanon Hanover,
F. McDonald,
The Kinks,
Erykah Badu,
Lalo Schifrin,
X-Ray Spex,
The Birthday Party,
Godley & Creme,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lakeside,
Malaria!,
Johnny Clarke,
Black Pus,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
New Order,
Curtis Mayfield,
Banda Bassotti,
Altered Images,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Scrapy,
UT,
Goldenarms,
Big Daddy Kane,
Thee Headcoats,
Inner City,
FM Einheit,
Rites of Spring,
Anakelly,
Little Man, Little Man, Little Man, Little Man.
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.