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 Denmark and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 rhodes 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 Goldenarms to the grunge 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 Todd Rundgren. All the underground hits.
All The Doors tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arab on Radar record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes 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 güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Five Americans,
La Düsseldorf,
KRS-One,
Cymande,
Saccharine Trust,
Theoretical Girls,
Spoonie Gee,
Eurythmics,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Motorama,
The Misunderstood,
JFA,
Duran Duran,
Cecil Taylor,
Davy DMX,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ralphi Rosario,
Ituana,
The Martian,
The Fugs,
Kaleidoscope,
Inner City,
Lee Hazlewood,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Godley & Creme,
Aloha Tigers,
Yusef Lateef,
Y Pants,
The Mummies,
Deakin,
Brothers Johnson,
Minor Threat,
Can,
The Fortunes,
Wally Richardson,
Peter and Kerry,
Aural Exciters,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Groovy Waters,
Sällskapet,
OOIOO,
Sonic Youth,
Crime,
The Cramps,
David McCallum,
Soft Machine,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lou Christie,
Q and Not U,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Music Machine,
Terrestrial Tones,
John Lydon,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Idris Muhammad,
This Heat,
Hardrive,
The Gladiators,
The Mojo Men,
David Axelrod,
Robert Hood,
Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton.
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.