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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in 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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 808 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 Peter and Kerry to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Marvin Gaye. All the underground hits.
All Public Enemy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sugar Minott record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Swans,
Eden Ahbez,
Warren Ellis,
DJ Style,
The Golliwogs,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Toni Rubio,
Fad Gadget,
Agent Orange,
Mandrill,
Bobby Byrd,
Sex Pistols,
Nation of Ulysses,
Alice Coltrane,
PIL,
Arthur Verocai,
Blake Baxter,
The Shadows of Knight,
Idris Muhammad,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
John Foxx,
Marc Almond,
David Bowie,
Eric B and Rakim,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Marcia Griffiths,
Todd Terry,
The Busters,
Sun City Girls,
Neil Young,
Prince Buster,
Kerrie Biddell,
Aloha Tigers,
Erasure,
Siglo XX,
Anakelly,
The Victims,
The Misunderstood,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Scientists,
Sight & Sound,
The Raincoats,
Essential Logic,
Make Up,
Gastr Del Sol,
Babytalk,
Ultravox,
Spandau Ballet,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Fela Kuti,
Iggy Pop,
Fluxion,
The Star Department,
The Count Five,
Intrusion,
Charles Mingus,
Basic Channel,
Public Image Ltd.,
AZ,
The Gladiators,
Jacques Brel,
Shoche,
DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak.
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.