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 Samoa and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 The Move to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fort Wilson Riot. All the underground hits.
All Rahsaan Roland Kirk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sam Rivers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Unwound,
Avey Tare,
Tubeway Army,
Oblivians,
Jacques Brel,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Flesh Eaters,
Hoover,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Ken Boothe,
Barrington Levy,
Wasted Youth,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Idris Muhammad,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Yusef Lateef,
New Order,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Swell Maps,
Cybotron,
The Blackbyrds,
Reagan Youth,
In Retrospect,
Fela Kuti,
The Sonics,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Ornette Coleman,
Matthew Halsall,
Nation of Ulysses,
Supertramp,
Agitation Free,
Soft Cell,
Archie Shepp,
Lindisfarne,
Banda Bassotti,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Todd Terry,
Wolf Eyes,
Con Funk Shun,
Babytalk,
Cheater Slicks,
Arab on Radar,
The Happenings,
Aswad,
Graham Central Station,
Thee Headcoats,
Livin' Joy,
The Human League,
Saccharine Trust,
Ossler,
Make Up,
Jandek,
Y Pants,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
These Immortal Souls,
Royal Trux,
MC5, MC5, MC5, MC5.
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.