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 Suriname and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Oblivians to the techno 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 Modern Lovers. All the underground hits.
All The Knickerbockers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum 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 organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
John Coltrane,
Sun City Girls,
Pulsallama,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Patti Smith,
Don Cherry,
Public Enemy,
Bill Wells,
Radiohead,
Henry Cow,
Kurtis Blow,
Stetsasonic,
Liliput,
Bronski Beat,
Deadbeat,
The New Christs,
AZ,
Thee Headcoats,
Youth Brigade,
Eddi Front,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Wasted Youth,
Jimmy McGriff,
the Normal,
Eurythmics,
Barbara Tucker,
Gang Starr,
Lucky Dragons,
The Electric Prunes,
FM Einheit,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Jeru the Damaja,
Crash Course in Science,
Organ,
Eve St. Jones,
Barry Ungar,
Quantec,
Pierre Henry,
Janne Schatter,
Godley & Creme,
The Names,
Eli Mardock,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Jandek,
Colin Newman,
LL Cool J,
The Slits,
Echospace,
Television Personalities,
Crime,
Marc Almond,
The Last Poets,
Wire,
Alton Ellis,
Franke,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
KRS-One,
Arab on Radar,
Von Mondo,
Shuggie Otis,
The Index,
David Bowie,
Groovy Waters,
MDC, MDC, MDC, MDC.
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.