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 Israel and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the oboe 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 Dennis Brown to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters 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 sitar and an oboe 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 güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rites of Spring,
X-102,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eric Copeland,
UT,
Half Japanese,
Camberwell Now,
Soft Cell,
The New Christs,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lindisfarne,
Country Teasers,
Groovy Waters,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Move,
Bob Dylan,
Soulsonic Force,
Visage,
Sarah Menescal,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Pole,
Sexual Harrassment,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Toni Rubio,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The United States of America,
Magazine,
ABC,
ABBA,
Basic Channel,
Nick Fraelich,
Sun City Girls,
Robert Hood,
Suicide,
Sound Behaviour,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Joy Division,
Wally Richardson,
Nas,
Crash Course in Science,
The Blackbyrds,
Man Eating Sloth,
Lou Reed,
Robert Wyatt,
Rakim,
Adolescents,
Metal Thangz,
Idris Muhammad,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Thompson Twins,
the Human League,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Durutti Column,
Excepter,
Ossler,
The Techniques,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Duran Duran,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lucky Dragons,
Cymande, Cymande, Cymande, Cymande.
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.