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 St Lucia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the guitar 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 H. Thieme 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 Big Daddy Kane. All the underground hits.
All Wally Richardson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Graham Central Station record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 808 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 sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cowsills,
Joyce Sims,
Davy DMX,
The Doors,
Ohio Players,
a-ha,
The Kinks,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Ludus,
Roxette,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lou Reed,
Sight & Sound,
Little Man,
Swell Maps,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Human League,
Black Moon,
Ossler,
Fatback Band,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Q and Not U,
Drive Like Jehu,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Silicon Teens,
The Buckinghams,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ken Boothe,
Avey Tare,
Deakin,
K-Klass,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Audionom,
The Music Machine,
Pharoah Sanders,
Johnny Clarke,
Absolute Body Control,
Neu!,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Radiohead,
Talk Talk,
Kas Product,
Dave Gahan,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Josef K,
Guru Guru,
Letta Mbulu,
Ornette Coleman,
Eric Copeland,
The Electric Prunes,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Minutemen,
Inner City,
Japan,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Offenders,
Boz Scaggs,
Aural Exciters,
Popol Vuh,
Pierre Henry,
The Gap Band,
Quando Quango, Quando Quango, Quando Quango, Quando Quango.
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.