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 Vanuatu and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 Seoul and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the rock 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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 The Smiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sight & Sound,
Mark Hollis,
Sound Behaviour,
Rosa Yemen,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
ABBA,
Wire,
Amazonics,
Country Teasers,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Television Personalities,
ABC,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Ornette Coleman,
KRS-One,
Man Parrish,
Rhythm & Sound,
Blancmange,
Radio Birdman,
Crooked Eye,
Jacques Brel,
8 Eyed Spy,
Kurtis Blow,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Skaos,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Hasil Adkins,
The Smoke,
Lou Christie,
Barry Ungar,
Kerrie Biddell,
Spandau Ballet,
the Human League,
Tropical Tobacco,
Oblivians,
Donny Hathaway,
Tomorrow,
FM Einheit,
In Retrospect,
Absolute Body Control,
Clear Light,
Harmonia,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Move,
Yellowson,
The Martian,
Bauhaus,
Black Pus,
Wings,
The Slackers,
Iggy Pop,
Liliput,
Godley & Creme,
The Angels of Light,
Prince Buster,
The Golliwogs,
Tommy Roe,
Archie Shepp,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Cybotron,
Pierre Henry,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges.
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.