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 Kyrgyzstan and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Bologna.
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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
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 Warren Ellis to the electroclash 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Mr. Review tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quadrant record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Outsiders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
KRS-One,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
AZ,
Pierre Henry,
Unwound,
The Fortunes,
Thompson Twins,
Cecil Taylor,
Bang On A Can,
Tropical Tobacco,
Mantronix,
Sandy B,
The Walker Brothers,
The Happenings,
The Alarm Clocks,
Make Up,
This Heat,
Bootsy Collins,
Juan Atkins,
the Slits,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dark Day,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Yaz,
Barrington Levy,
Pere Ubu,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Neon Judgement,
Little Man,
Throbbing Gristle,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sun Ra,
Buzzcocks,
Interpol,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
LL Cool J,
Harmonia,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
the Soft Cell,
Steve Hackett,
Connie Case,
The Grass Roots,
Curtis Mayfield,
Robert Wyatt,
The Toasters,
Supertramp,
Qualms,
Sun City Girls,
Amon Düül,
Roger Hodgson,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Fuzztones,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Pretty Things,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Pantaleimon,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Gories,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.