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 South Sudan and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Youth Brigade to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Max Romeo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 an oboe 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 sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Visage,
the Slits,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Kerrie Biddell,
Qualms,
The Slits,
Eli Mardock,
The Pretty Things,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Lightning Bolt,
MC5,
Gregory Isaacs,
the Normal,
Fatback Band,
Freddie Wadling,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The J.B.'s,
Cluster,
AZ,
Mission of Burma,
Kool Moe Dee,
Robert Wyatt,
Cheater Slicks,
The Standells,
The Black Dice,
New York Dolls,
Fela Kuti,
Masters at Work,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lyres,
Bobbi Humphrey,
This Heat,
Gil Scott Heron,
Pagans,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Eric Copeland,
The Offenders,
Dawn Penn,
Lakeside,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Funky Four + One,
Black Flag,
Monks,
Marmalade,
UT,
Nik Kershaw,
Quando Quango,
Procol Harum,
Laurel Aitken,
Deakin,
Crooked Eye,
DJ Style,
48th St. Collective,
the Fania All-Stars,
Fugazi,
Man Eating Sloth,
Albert Ayler,
The Cowsills,
The Red Krayola,
Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs.
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.