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 Sudan and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Copenhagen.
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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Matthew Halsall to the rap 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 Angry Samoans. All the underground hits.
All Lakeside tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Skaos record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb 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 a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Byrd,
The Doobie Brothers,
Letta Mbulu,
Bill Near,
Wire,
Lou Christie,
Swell Maps,
Crispian St. Peters,
Flipper,
The Knickerbockers,
Malaria!,
Q and Not U,
Rhythm & Sound,
Harmonia,
DNA,
Alton Ellis,
The J.B.'s,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Youth Brigade,
Television,
Andrew Hill,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Roy Ayers,
X-102,
Nik Kershaw,
Cecil Taylor,
Minor Threat,
Joe Smooth,
Theoretical Girls,
The Sisters of Mercy,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Rod Modell,
Robert Görl,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Black Bananas,
Tres Demented,
Arthur Verocai,
Blake Baxter,
Scrapy,
Ken Boothe,
Throbbing Gristle,
Index,
Deadbeat,
Black Sheep,
Infiniti,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Blackbyrds,
Funky Four + One,
The Moleskins,
Danielle Patucci,
Little Man,
Anthony Braxton,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Raincoats,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Fall,
Eden Ahbez,
Inner City,
Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy.
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.