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 Senegal and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Whodini to the crunk 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 Country Teasers. All the underground hits.
All the Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Carl Craig record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an oboe 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 oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Maleditus Sound,
The Walker Brothers,
ABC,
Sällskapet,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Frankie Knuckles,
Cal Tjader,
Lalann,
Rosa Yemen,
The Gladiators,
Moss Icon,
The Flesh Eaters,
Jesper Dahlback,
H. Thieme,
Scion,
Jeff Mills,
Kool Moe Dee,
the Human League,
Interpol,
Donny Hathaway,
Howard Jones,
Robert Wyatt,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Aural Exciters,
The Tremeloes,
The J.B.'s,
UT,
The American Breed,
L. Decosne,
the Slits,
Con Funk Shun,
World's Most,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sex Pistols,
Marshall Jefferson,
Yazoo,
Barclay James Harvest,
Harpers Bizarre,
Youth Brigade,
The Durutti Column,
Rod Modell,
The Birthday Party,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
John Holt,
Eric Dolphy,
Flipper,
Severed Heads,
Wire,
Wings,
Zapp,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Warsaw,
Marvin Gaye,
Sugar Minott,
Vainqueur,
Lyres,
Bauhaus,
Circle Jerks,
Ituana,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Livin' Joy,
Spoonie Gee,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.