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 Nicaragua and from Lagos.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Lower 48 to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Red Lorry Yellow Lorry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eve St. Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joe Smooth,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lakeside,
Altered Images,
Minor Threat,
Gang Gang Dance,
Slick Rick,
Warren Ellis,
Matthew Bourne,
Buzzcocks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Fear,
Ralphi Rosario,
Amazonics,
Joy Division,
Radiopuhelimet,
Desert Stars,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Ronnie Foster,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Zeros,
The Wake,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Invisible,
Anakelly,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Toasters,
K-Klass,
Smog,
The Victims,
Roger Hodgson,
Isaac Hayes,
Das Ding,
Visage,
Peter and Kerry,
Ituana,
Soulsonic Force,
The Offenders,
Bill Wells,
The Birthday Party,
Johnny Clarke,
Morten Harket,
Sixth Finger,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Excepter,
Sam Rivers,
PIL,
Vainqueur,
Qualms,
Kaleidoscope,
Albert Ayler,
The American Breed,
Jawbox,
The Velvet Underground,
Kevin Saunderson,
EPMD,
8 Eyed Spy,
Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators.
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.