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 Zambia and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Susan Cadogan to the techno 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 Rites of Spring. All the underground hits.
All Agitation Free tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lyres record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin 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 sitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Banda Bassotti,
Dark Day,
Electric Prunes,
The Knickerbockers,
Bauhaus,
E-Dancer,
The Barracudas,
The Walker Brothers,
Donald Byrd,
Big Daddy Kane,
H. Thieme,
Deadbeat,
D'Angelo,
Ronnie Foster,
Barbara Tucker,
Little Man,
David Axelrod,
Echospace,
MC5,
Laurel Aitken,
Simply Red,
Von Mondo,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sister Nancy,
Nik Kershaw,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Essential Logic,
Cybotron,
The Alarm Clocks,
Curtis Mayfield,
Franke,
Scratch Acid,
Peter and Kerry,
Scan 7,
Amon Düül,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Loose Ends,
Zapp,
Au Pairs,
The Busters,
Flash Fearless,
Ultra Naté,
Monks,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Gang Gang Dance,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Patti Smith,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Scrapy,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Faust,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Trumans Water,
Anthony Braxton,
Wasted Youth,
Pantytec,
Dawn Penn,
Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy.
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.