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 Slovenia and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Offenders to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Soul Sonic Force 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin 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 arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
The Gories,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Absolute Body Control,
Letta Mbulu,
Al Stewart,
The Cowsills,
Andrew Hill,
Pagans,
Gastr Del Sol,
K-Klass,
Cecil Taylor,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ornette Coleman,
Junior Murvin,
Inner City,
Monolake,
Young Marble Giants,
OOIOO,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Mark Hollis,
Bob Dylan,
Mars,
Skriet,
Jeff Mills,
Henry Cow,
The Selecter,
Crispy Ambulance,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Bill Wells,
Sparks,
Erasure,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Barclay James Harvest,
Gang of Four,
H. Thieme,
Amazonics,
Wasted Youth,
Soft Cell,
MDC,
Stockholm Monsters,
Little Man,
Sun City Girls,
Moebius,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Buzzcocks,
10cc,
Fear,
Sly & The Family Stone,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Funkadelic,
Tears for Fears,
Sarah Menescal,
Essential Logic,
Procol Harum,
Fat Boys,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
DNA,
Kool Moe Dee,
Marcia Griffiths,
Gil Scott Heron,
Half Japanese,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.