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 Uganda and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the oboe 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 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap to the punk 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 The Flesh Eaters. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Green 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 a chamberlin 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 organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Hood,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Eli Mardock,
John Lydon,
In Retrospect,
Archie Shepp,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Walker Brothers,
The Trojans,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Fad Gadget,
Easy Going,
Janne Schatter,
Index,
The Monks,
The J.B.'s,
Interpol,
The Beau Brummels,
Aloha Tigers,
Josef K,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Prince Buster,
Swans,
ABBA,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Charles Mingus,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Vogues,
the Slits,
The Sound,
Tim Buckley,
ABC,
Los Fastidios,
Public Image Ltd.,
Joensuu 1685,
The Fuzztones,
Skriet,
Ponytail,
Niagra,
The Fire Engines,
Magazine,
Section 25,
Ralphi Rosario,
Kenny Larkin,
T.S.O.L.,
Skarface,
Minnie Riperton,
The Cramps,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Little Man,
Andrew Hill,
This Heat,
Vainqueur,
June of 44,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Alice Coltrane,
Infiniti,
Bootsy Collins,
Sight & Sound,
Joey Negro,
Liliput,
Matthew Halsall,
The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set.
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.