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 France and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the sitar 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 Brass Construction to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Mars. All the underground hits.
All Saccharine Trust tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fugs 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare 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 theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Subhumans,
the Normal,
Scientists,
Lebanon Hanover,
Model 500,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Grass Roots,
Tears for Fears,
Max Romeo,
Hardrive,
Porter Ricks,
Soft Machine,
Basic Channel,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Star Department,
Cluster,
Radiohead,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Desert Stars,
Aaron Thompson,
Rotary Connection,
Boz Scaggs,
Glambeats Corp.,
Slick Rick,
Kool Moe Dee,
Glenn Branca,
Yaz,
The Wake,
Swell Maps,
Groovy Waters,
The Pretty Things,
Leonard Cohen,
Donny Hathaway,
Patti Smith,
Surgeon,
Reuben Wilson,
Howard Jones,
Man Eating Sloth,
Camberwell Now,
Quadrant,
Trumans Water,
Hot Snakes,
Urselle,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
This Heat,
Blossom Toes,
Scion,
Youth Brigade,
H. Thieme,
Vainqueur,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Public Enemy,
Newcleus,
Colin Newman,
Girls At Our Best!,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
DNA,
Kurtis Blow,
The Music Machine,
Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry.
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.