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 Comoros and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Swell Maps to the dance 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 Babytalk. All the underground hits.
All Curtis Mayfield tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Curtis Mayfield record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Camberwell Now record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
The Buckinghams,
Excepter,
Howard Jones,
Mo-Dettes,
the Bar-Kays,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Mars,
The Slackers,
Brand Nubian,
Scott Walker,
Michelle Simonal,
Blossom Toes,
Robert Görl,
Jandek,
Television,
The Kinks,
Hasil Adkins,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Symarip,
Dennis Brown,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
K-Klass,
Lindisfarne,
X-Ray Spex,
The Young Rascals,
Theoretical Girls,
Y Pants,
Dark Day,
The Detroit Cobras,
DJ Style,
Davy DMX,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Arcadia,
Junior Murvin,
The Last Poets,
Stetsasonic,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Joe Smooth,
Piero Umiliani,
Can,
In Retrospect,
Susan Cadogan,
B.T. Express,
48th St. Collective,
Quadrant,
Juan Atkins,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Prince Buster,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
U.S. Maple,
Rod Modell,
H. Thieme,
Anakelly,
Desert Stars,
Procol Harum,
Bizarre Inc.,
Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols.
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.