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 Niger and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Portland.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the sitar 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 Sarah Menescal to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Man Eating Sloth. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Drive Like Jehu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Shuggie Otis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Raincoats,
Matthew Bourne,
Youth Brigade,
Ronan,
Symarip,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Shuggie Otis,
The Doobie Brothers,
Dawn Penn,
Kurtis Blow,
Can,
Roger Hodgson,
Sun City Girls,
R.M.O.,
Letta Mbulu,
Slave,
Ultra Naté,
Panda Bear,
Tres Demented,
The Blackbyrds,
Alton Ellis,
Cecil Taylor,
Flipper,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Cowsills,
Clear Light,
Bush Tetras,
Scott Walker,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Moleskins,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
K-Klass,
Wolf Eyes,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Laurel Aitken,
The Neon Judgement,
The Move,
Nico,
Country Teasers,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bauhaus,
The Seeds,
Brick,
Pierre Henry,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sexual Harrassment,
Rufus Thomas,
The Gladiators,
Cymande,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Techniques,
Dennis Brown,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
LL Cool J,
The Electric Prunes,
Suicide,
Intrusion,
Donny Hathaway,
Echospace,
Sparks,
Grey Daturas,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Fear,
The Searchers,
The Human League, The Human League, The Human League, The Human League.
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.