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 Malta and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the organ 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 Lyres to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Pretty Things. All the underground hits.
All Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a mellotron 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 linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Urselle,
Hoover,
A Certain Ratio,
the Normal,
Hashim,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lower 48,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Radiohead,
New York Dolls,
Joyce Sims,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Essential Logic,
X-102,
Talk Talk,
Chris & Cosey,
Skriet,
Pole,
The Techniques,
Todd Rundgren,
Y Pants,
Shuggie Otis,
Danielle Patucci,
Jimmy McGriff,
Al Stewart,
Pussy Galore,
Jeff Lynne,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Maleditus Sound,
Au Pairs,
The Buckinghams,
Dennis Brown,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Echospace,
Grey Daturas,
CMW,
DNA,
The Gladiators,
The Last Poets,
John Holt,
Dual Sessions,
Joey Negro,
Todd Terry,
Boz Scaggs,
Sun City Girls,
Excepter,
Shoche,
the Bar-Kays,
Fatback Band,
L. Decosne,
The Knickerbockers,
The Searchers,
The Leaves,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Wake,
Lightning Bolt,
Joensuu 1685, Joensuu 1685, Joensuu 1685, Joensuu 1685.
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.