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 Angola and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Half Japanese. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tres Demented record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes 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 linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television,
Icehouse,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Fugs,
Johnny Osbourne,
Gastr Del Sol,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Rapeman,
Zero Boys,
The Offenders,
Surgeon,
The Moleskins,
Junior Murvin,
The Residents,
Cecil Taylor,
Reagan Youth,
K-Klass,
The Gladiators,
Eurythmics,
David Axelrod,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Mandrill,
China Crisis,
Panda Bear,
The Fortunes,
The Count Five,
Brand Nubian,
The Cure,
Joyce Sims,
The Searchers,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Al Stewart,
Dawn Penn,
Half Japanese,
Jandek,
Bizarre Inc.,
Hoover,
Procol Harum,
Black Bananas,
Black Moon,
Althea and Donna,
New Age Steppers,
The Pop Group,
Ossler,
Swans,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Stiv Bators,
Fat Boys,
Big Daddy Kane,
Joe Smooth,
Henry Cow,
The Last Poets,
Maurizio,
Oblivians,
Nirvana,
Drexciya,
Harmonia,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Simply Red,
Skaos,
Gang Green, Gang Green, Gang Green, Gang Green.
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.