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 Mali and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 Hong Kong and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Nas to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bizarre Inc.. All the underground hits.
All Moby Grape tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Junior Murvin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 808 and a chamberlin 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 arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gladiators,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Ossler,
The Divine Comedy,
Tommy Roe,
Mary Jane Girls,
Ice-T,
Quadrant,
Essential Logic,
Suburban Knight,
The Shadows of Knight,
Flash Fearless,
The New Christs,
Drive Like Jehu,
Unrelated Segments,
Erykah Badu,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Jacques Brel,
Sugar Minott,
Panda Bear,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
D'Angelo,
Tubeway Army,
Minor Threat,
Deepchord,
Andrew Hill,
Barry Ungar,
Q65,
Lalann,
Blancmange,
Robert Görl,
Mantronix,
LL Cool J,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Dave Clark Five,
June of 44,
Johnny Osbourne,
Max Romeo,
Amon Düül,
Gichy Dan,
Idris Muhammad,
Bauhaus,
Eve St. Jones,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Last Poets,
Das Ding,
Susan Cadogan,
The Seeds,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Dead C,
The Martian,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Brothers Johnson,
Soulsonic Force,
Gil Scott Heron,
Masters at Work,
Grauzone,
The Leaves,
Jimmy McGriff,
the Association, the Association, the Association, the Association.
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.