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 Malaysia and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Cure to the grunge 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 Altered Images. All the underground hits.
All Trumans Water tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suicide 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a PIL record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Yellowson,
Pantytec,
Henry Cow,
Minor Threat,
Lucky Dragons,
The Zeros,
Camouflage,
Mad Mike,
The Music Machine,
Alphaville,
Lou Reed,
X-Ray Spex,
Jeff Lynne,
Masters at Work,
Marmalade,
Roger Hodgson,
The Cramps,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Swans,
Rotary Connection,
Wasted Youth,
Eric B and Rakim,
Mantronix,
Brass Construction,
The Cowsills,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Pulsallama,
Jeru the Damaja,
Whodini,
James White and The Blacks,
Big Daddy Kane,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Boz Scaggs,
Man Eating Sloth,
New Age Steppers,
Janne Schatter,
In Retrospect,
Fela Kuti,
T. Rex,
Donald Byrd,
Television,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Nick Fraelich,
Circle Jerks,
Public Enemy,
Man Parrish,
Slave,
Eurythmics,
The Electric Prunes,
Flipper,
Wings,
Rakim,
Sex Pistols,
Eli Mardock,
Zapp,
the Human League,
PIL,
The Kinks,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves.
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.