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 Samoa and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the sitar 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 Fad Gadget to the electroclash 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 The Vogues. All the underground hits.
All The Tremeloes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Technova 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet 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 linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Move,
Cecil Taylor,
The Trojans,
Suburban Knight,
Crime,
Accadde A,
The Flesh Eaters,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Al Stewart,
The Mummies,
LL Cool J,
Metal Thangz,
Japan,
Television Personalities,
Scan 7,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Last Poets,
H. Thieme,
Franke,
The Mojo Men,
The Slits,
The Fall,
Nas,
AZ,
Public Enemy,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lightning Bolt,
The Electric Prunes,
Blancmange,
Model 500,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Babytalk,
The Smiths,
The Gun Club,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
This Heat,
Pierre Henry,
Livin' Joy,
Nation of Ulysses,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sound Behaviour,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Amon Düül II,
Harry Pussy,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
a-ha,
Rufus Thomas,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Black Pus,
Stiv Bators,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Lucky Dragons,
Arcadia,
Flipper,
Gichy Dan,
Joey Negro,
Alton Ellis,
Jacob Miller,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Monks, The Monks, The Monks, The Monks.
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.