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 India and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Wire to the rock kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David McCallum. All the underground hits.
All Ohio Players tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Davy DMX record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes 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 sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Bob Dylan,
the Human League,
B.T. Express,
New Order,
the Sonics,
Roxette,
JFA,
The Gories,
Deadbeat,
New Age Steppers,
The Monochrome Set,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
the Slits,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
X-101,
The Mojo Men,
Sunsets and Hearts,
the Soft Cell,
Soul II Soul,
Animal Collective,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Quando Quango,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Fluxion,
The Golliwogs,
UT,
Symarip,
Ultravox,
Dennis Brown,
Funky Four + One,
E-Dancer,
Con Funk Shun,
Faraquet,
Bronski Beat,
Ludus,
Sight & Sound,
Bizarre Inc.,
Pussy Galore,
The Martian,
The Smoke,
Joy Division,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Seeds,
The Moody Blues,
Maleditus Sound,
Accadde A,
a-ha,
World's Most,
Swell Maps,
Sällskapet,
Gang Green,
Peter and Kerry,
Sex Pistols,
Thompson Twins,
Eric Dolphy,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Aloha Tigers,
T.S.O.L.,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays.
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.