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 Switzerland and from Mumbai.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Funky Four + One to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Toni Rubio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Toni Rubio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a linndrum 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 synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sex Pistols,
Crooked Eye,
Section 25,
Country Teasers,
Khruangbin,
Rakim,
Jacob Miller,
Faraquet,
Big Daddy Kane,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Henry Cow,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Drive Like Jehu,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Matthew Halsall,
Aswad,
Pantytec,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Pagans,
Magma,
D'Angelo,
Oblivians,
Janne Schatter,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Funkadelic,
Warren Ellis,
The Martian,
Model 500,
Joe Finger,
The Zeros,
Metal Thangz,
Au Pairs,
Goldenarms,
Laurel Aitken,
Interpol,
Radiohead,
Idris Muhammad,
Urselle,
LL Cool J,
Matthew Bourne,
Blossom Toes,
Q and Not U,
The Skatalites,
Harmonia,
The Fall,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pole,
Sonny Sharrock,
Popol Vuh,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Dawn Penn,
Robert Wyatt,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Lakeside,
EPMD,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Clear Light,
Chris Corsano,
Joey Negro,
Youth Brigade,
Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras.
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.