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 Monaco and from Tokyo.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Letta Mbulu to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Wings. All the underground hits.
All Neu! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Panda Bear record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe 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 rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
U.S. Maple,
Interpol,
This Heat,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Buckinghams,
Underground Resistance,
Scratch Acid,
Sight & Sound,
Symarip,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
cv313,
Fatback Band,
Minnie Riperton,
In Retrospect,
Cheater Slicks,
Yazoo,
Kevin Saunderson,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Cybotron,
Sex Pistols,
Niagra,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Crime,
The Index,
Eli Mardock,
Leonard Cohen,
H. Thieme,
Deakin,
Visage,
Barrington Levy,
Fugazi,
Yusef Lateef,
Lower 48,
Suicide,
Echospace,
Derrick Morgan,
Throbbing Gristle,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Ituana,
Delta 5,
Al Stewart,
48th St. Collective,
Jerry's Kids,
Barry Ungar,
Mo-Dettes,
Zero Boys,
World's Most,
The Pop Group,
Matthew Halsall,
Oblivians,
Robert Görl,
Bauhaus,
the Association,
Lyres,
One Last Wish,
The Mojo Men,
Icehouse,
Can,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.