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 Mexico and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Columbus.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Ossler to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Drive Like Jehu. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Japan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 mellotron and a marimba 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 synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
R.M.O.,
Rotary Connection,
Jimmy McGriff,
The United States of America,
Easy Going,
Lebanon Hanover,
Donny Hathaway,
Cameo,
Girls At Our Best!,
Brand Nubian,
The Happenings,
Eli Mardock,
Electric Prunes,
ABC,
Dead Boys,
Unrelated Segments,
Shuggie Otis,
Sex Pistols,
Heaven 17,
Fluxion,
Howard Jones,
Sound Behaviour,
Babytalk,
Barry Ungar,
Gastr Del Sol,
Frankie Knuckles,
Half Japanese,
Crispian St. Peters,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Inner City,
T. Rex,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
James White and The Blacks,
Yellowson,
Judy Mowatt,
The Busters,
The Black Dice,
Agitation Free,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Second Layer,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Gap Band,
Nils Olav,
The Fall,
Roger Hodgson,
The Monochrome Set,
Brothers Johnson,
Bobby Womack,
The Martian,
Smog,
Juan Atkins,
The Index,
D'Angelo,
The Monks,
Letta Mbulu,
Yazoo,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Velvet Underground,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Dirtbombs,
Lou Reed,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
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.