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 Uruguay and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Calgary.
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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Funky Four + One to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Rhythm & Sound. All the underground hits.
All The Black Dice tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Vogues record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb 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 clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
China Crisis,
the Human League,
Adolescents,
Cheater Slicks,
Swans,
Pussy Galore,
Donald Byrd,
Rosa Yemen,
The Leaves,
In Retrospect,
Gerry Rafferty,
Kaleidoscope,
Scion,
The Red Krayola,
Swell Maps,
Johnny Clarke,
Altered Images,
Barrington Levy,
ABBA,
The Fall,
The Invisible,
Schoolly D,
Loose Ends,
CMW,
The Skatalites,
The Standells,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Josef K,
Fad Gadget,
The United States of America,
Aural Exciters,
The Vogues,
New York Dolls,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Vainqueur,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Mr. Review,
The Index,
Dead Boys,
Country Teasers,
This Heat,
Joyce Sims,
Crash Course in Science,
K-Klass,
Byron Stingily,
Crooked Eye,
Suicide,
Cybotron,
Y Pants,
Avey Tare,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
John Cale,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Marmalade,
Roxy Music,
New Age Steppers,
Soul Sonic Force,
MDC,
Joey Negro,
H. Thieme,
Monolake,
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan.
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.