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 Kenya and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Stockholm.
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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Rhythm & Sound to the grime 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 Soft Machine. All the underground hits.
All Lucky Dragons tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Five Americans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin 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 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
This Heat,
Big Daddy Kane,
Scan 7,
Joe Smooth,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Swell Maps,
The Star Department,
the Bar-Kays,
Depeche Mode,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Electric Prunes,
Faraquet,
Royal Trux,
Gerry Rafferty,
Con Funk Shun,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Alton Ellis,
Roy Ayers,
Half Japanese,
Idris Muhammad,
Suicide,
The Buckinghams,
The Barracudas,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Seeds,
Bill Near,
Easy Going,
Spoonie Gee,
The Techniques,
Thee Headcoats,
Susan Cadogan,
Deakin,
The Music Machine,
Avey Tare,
Maurizio,
Underground Resistance,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Grass Roots,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Cramps,
Moby Grape,
Little Man,
Sight & Sound,
Pantytec,
Japan,
Letta Mbulu,
Sexual Harrassment,
Dennis Brown,
Pylon,
CMW,
James White and The Blacks,
Groovy Waters,
Glenn Branca,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Searchers,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Niagra,
The Alarm Clocks,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.