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 Chile and from Lyon.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Manchester.
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 mellotron 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 Depeche Mode to the crunk 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 Wasted Youth. All the underground hits.
All the Normal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 chamberlin and a synthesizer 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 mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ponytail,
Absolute Body Control,
The Gun Club,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Prince Buster,
Hashim,
Ultra Naté,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Busters,
Lyres,
Cecil Taylor,
Godley & Creme,
Reagan Youth,
Roy Ayers,
Depeche Mode,
Surgeon,
Gichy Dan,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Fire Engines,
Slave,
MC5,
D'Angelo,
Stetsasonic,
Josef K,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Soft Cell,
Black Flag,
The Dirtbombs,
These Immortal Souls,
Mad Mike,
New Age Steppers,
Robert Wyatt,
Masters at Work,
Scott Walker,
The Walker Brothers,
Dual Sessions,
Eric Copeland,
June Days,
Babytalk,
kango's stein massive,
Magma,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Fall,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Monochrome Set,
Amon Düül II,
Joe Smooth,
The Wake,
Saccharine Trust,
The Saints,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Big Daddy Kane,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Dave Gahan,
Zapp,
the Bar-Kays,
Sun City Girls,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.