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 Portugal and from Copenhagen.
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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Technova to the grunge 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 The Seeds. All the underground hits.
All Sad Lovers and Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Red Lorry Yellow Lorry 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin 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 oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Lebanon Hanover,
Index,
Stereo Dub,
Sight & Sound,
Marvin Gaye,
Japan,
Kas Product,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Livin' Joy,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Spandau Ballet,
Arab on Radar,
The Knickerbockers,
Surgeon,
Anakelly,
The Human League,
Urselle,
Barry Ungar,
Section 25,
Slave,
Stetsasonic,
Ornette Coleman,
Henry Cow,
The Slits,
David Bowie,
Oblivians,
the Swans,
Bobby Byrd,
Cluster,
The Fall,
kango's stein massive,
Ronan,
The Velvet Underground,
Banda Bassotti,
Avey Tare,
James White and The Blacks,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Funky Four + One,
The Dave Clark Five,
Anthony Braxton,
Dorothy Ashby,
Aural Exciters,
Joy Division,
Arcadia,
Lalo Schifrin,
Swans,
X-Ray Spex,
Gang Green,
The Shadows of Knight,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Johnny Osbourne,
Susan Cadogan,
Jandek,
The Gap Band,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Sugar Minott,
Quadrant,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Cowsills,
Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes.
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.