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 Tuvalu and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Gabor Szabo to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All The Happenings tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Spandau Ballet 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron 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 chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young,
Rites of Spring,
Gang Green,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Boogie Down Productions,
Zero Boys,
Quantec,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Excepter,
Sun Ra,
Gregory Isaacs,
Das Ding,
Soulsonic Force,
The Residents,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Buckinghams,
Deakin,
Wasted Youth,
The Move,
Swell Maps,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Barracudas,
Kaleidoscope,
The Modern Lovers,
Dave Gahan,
Pantaleimon,
John Lydon,
The Five Americans,
Ken Boothe,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Don Cherry,
One Last Wish,
Parry Music,
EPMD,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Marmalade,
Barry Ungar,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Erykah Badu,
Con Funk Shun,
The Last Poets,
Byron Stingily,
Barclay James Harvest,
Malaria!,
Erasure,
Qualms,
Arab on Radar,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Pere Ubu,
The Dirtbombs,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Velvet Underground,
Derrick Morgan,
Roger Hodgson,
DNA,
Eddi Front,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.