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 Kenya and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Oppenheimer Analysis to the disco 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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All Model 500 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Shadows of Knight record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television Personalities record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Eric B and Rakim,
PIL,
The Blues Magoos,
Gong,
The Human League,
OOIOO,
The Toasters,
The Cramps,
Arcadia,
Supertramp,
Yellowson,
Moebius,
Robert Hood,
Neu!,
The Mojo Men,
Rotary Connection,
Byron Stingily,
48th St. Collective,
Terrestrial Tones,
Man Eating Sloth,
EPMD,
Peter and Kerry,
Brand Nubian,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Durutti Column,
Nik Kershaw,
Brick,
The Golliwogs,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Tubeway Army,
Juan Atkins,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Grass Roots,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
8 Eyed Spy,
Sandy B,
Tears for Fears,
Jacques Brel,
Negative Approach,
Q and Not U,
The Angels of Light,
Soulsonic Force,
Ohio Players,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Alice Coltrane,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ornette Coleman,
Pet Shop Boys,
Monolake,
Minny Pops,
Kool Moe Dee,
Urselle,
The Knickerbockers,
Johnny Osbourne,
DJ Sneak,
Sarah Menescal,
Bill Wells,
Roxy Music,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Five Americans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Judy Mowatt, Judy Mowatt, Judy Mowatt, Judy Mowatt.
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.