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 Togo and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in 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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Rufus Thomas to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Lou Reed. All the underground hits.
All Eric Dolphy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Second Layer record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Star Department record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pole,
The Selecter,
Arcadia,
Lakeside,
Bronski Beat,
Sonny Sharrock,
Graham Central Station,
Liliput,
Sonic Youth,
Drive Like Jehu,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Lou Christie,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Vogues,
The American Breed,
John Foxx,
Charles Mingus,
The Durutti Column,
Jerry's Kids,
The Golliwogs,
The Walker Brothers,
The Stooges,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Beau Brummels,
Gang Gang Dance,
a-ha,
Infiniti,
Faraquet,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Black Dice,
Curtis Mayfield,
X-Ray Spex,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Grauzone,
Rakim,
Shuggie Otis,
Angry Samoans,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Loose Ends,
The Smoke,
Animal Collective,
Tres Demented,
Mandrill,
Minnie Riperton,
Eurythmics,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Moody Blues,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Oblivians,
Jeru the Damaja,
Von Mondo,
Nick Fraelich,
Joyce Sims,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ronan,
Pantaleimon,
Stiv Bators,
T. Rex,
Sun Ra,
Aloha Tigers,
Cal Tjader,
Blake Baxter,
Aswad,
Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls.
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.