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 Hungary and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Suburban Knight to the rock 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 Crispy Ambulance. All the underground hits.
All Eddi Front tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cecil Taylor 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer 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 arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Durutti Column,
Cecil Taylor,
Al Stewart,
The Last Poets,
Sound Behaviour,
Adolescents,
Altered Images,
Reagan Youth,
The Slackers,
the Normal,
Porter Ricks,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Divine Comedy,
The Barracudas,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Fear,
The Stooges,
the Bar-Kays,
The Knickerbockers,
Talk Talk,
Black Flag,
Todd Rundgren,
Banda Bassotti,
Angry Samoans,
Scan 7,
The Angels of Light,
Don Cherry,
Rod Modell,
Amon Düül II,
Harry Pussy,
Urselle,
Television,
The Fuzztones,
A Certain Ratio,
Peter and Kerry,
Slick Rick,
Bootsy Collins,
Hashim,
The Alarm Clocks,
Ossler,
Dorothy Ashby,
Graham Central Station,
Con Funk Shun,
The Birthday Party,
Bobby Sherman,
Gerry Rafferty,
Brand Nubian,
Cluster,
Lucky Dragons,
Bauhaus,
Lightning Bolt,
Girls At Our Best!,
DJ Sneak,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Technova,
Marine Girls,
Alison Limerick,
10cc,
X-101,
The Moody Blues,
The Pop Group,
Ten City, Ten City, Ten City, Ten City.
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.