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 Japan and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Audionom to the crunk 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 Toni Rubio. All the underground hits.
All Aswad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Japan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb 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 a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pet Shop Boys,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
David Axelrod,
Suicide,
Dead Boys,
the Slits,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Franke,
Crispian St. Peters,
Colin Newman,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Flash Fearless,
Easy Going,
Newcleus,
The Pop Group,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Amon Düül II,
The Young Rascals,
Maurizio,
John Coltrane,
Rekid,
Bob Dylan,
Gang Gang Dance,
Harpers Bizarre,
X-101,
The Selecter,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Moleskins,
The Slits,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
K-Klass,
Rosa Yemen,
Don Cherry,
Youth Brigade,
John Cale,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Y Pants,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Music Machine,
Television Personalities,
Zapp,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
These Immortal Souls,
The Gun Club,
Public Enemy,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tommy Roe,
The Stooges,
Roxette,
Porter Ricks,
Alton Ellis,
The Skatalites,
Bill Near,
Black Flag,
Al Stewart,
Barry Ungar,
Make Up,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Josef K,
Lungfish,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.