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 Colombia and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the güiro 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 X-101 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 Gang of Four. All the underground hits.
All Kerri Chandler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Moebius record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar 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 clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q65,
Roy Ayers,
Brothers Johnson,
Matthew Halsall,
Al Stewart,
Smog,
X-102,
CMW,
The Fugs,
The Divine Comedy,
Sandy B,
Joe Finger,
KRS-One,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tommy Roe,
Model 500,
Robert Wyatt,
Animal Collective,
Radiohead,
Little Man,
The Skatalites,
Yazoo,
The Invisible,
Lalo Schifrin,
New York Dolls,
The Buckinghams,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Barbara Tucker,
China Crisis,
Massinfluence,
Spandau Ballet,
Stiv Bators,
Dark Day,
Donald Byrd,
Derrick Morgan,
Alphaville,
Patti Smith,
Cecil Taylor,
The Searchers,
Janne Schatter,
Soul II Soul,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Victims,
Ken Boothe,
Colin Newman,
The Red Krayola,
Terry Callier,
Section 25,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Grass Roots,
Newcleus,
Intrusion,
Banda Bassotti,
Eurythmics,
Lyres,
The Sonics,
Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance.
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.