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 Guinea and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the guitar 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 The Remains to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 F. McDonald. All the underground hits.
All Faraquet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Prince Buster record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord 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 rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Depeche Mode,
Flash Fearless,
Leonard Cohen,
Janne Schatter,
Radio Birdman,
John Coltrane,
Easy Going,
Sam Rivers,
Swell Maps,
Andrew Hill,
The Gories,
The Motions,
Barry Ungar,
kango's stein massive,
Essential Logic,
10cc,
Funky Four + One,
Gabor Szabo,
The Fire Engines,
Youth Brigade,
PIL,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Raincoats,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kenny Larkin,
Crispian St. Peters,
Roger Hodgson,
Eve St. Jones,
Vainqueur,
Von Mondo,
Don Cherry,
Dead Boys,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Rufus Thomas,
Q65,
The Last Poets,
Zero Boys,
D'Angelo,
X-101,
DJ Sneak,
Quantec,
Porter Ricks,
B.T. Express,
Goldenarms,
Eric Dolphy,
Eden Ahbez,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Move,
The Smiths,
Television Personalities,
Lou Christie,
Gastr Del Sol,
the Swans,
Mars,
8 Eyed Spy,
Kayak,
Gang Gang Dance,
Newcleus,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.