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 Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Eric B and Rakim to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 a-ha. All the underground hits.
All The Gladiators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Motorama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar 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 guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Groovy Waters,
Desert Stars,
John Lydon,
Arcadia,
Man Parrish,
Crime,
Liliput,
Don Cherry,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
DNA,
La Düsseldorf,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Rites of Spring,
Eric Dolphy,
Jerry's Kids,
Sonny Sharrock,
R.M.O.,
David Axelrod,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Gang Gang Dance,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Godley & Creme,
Sex Pistols,
Nirvana,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Invisible,
Pagans,
Aural Exciters,
K-Klass,
Radiohead,
This Heat,
Simply Red,
Suicide,
Zapp,
Intrusion,
Gil Scott Heron,
Janne Schatter,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Blackbyrds,
Kool Moe Dee,
Mary Jane Girls,
Jandek,
Kaleidoscope,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Brass Construction,
Con Funk Shun,
X-102,
June Days,
Kas Product,
Swans,
the Slits,
Mark Hollis,
Shuggie Otis,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Animal Collective,
Sugar Minott,
The Gun Club,
Tomorrow,
Sun Ra,
Alice Coltrane,
Bluetip,
AZ, AZ, AZ, AZ.
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.