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 Eritrea and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Wasted Youth to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Kings Of Tomorrow. All the underground hits.
All the Bar-Kays tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Art Ensemble Of Chicago record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ituana,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Simply Red,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Monks,
Pagans,
The Doors,
PIL,
New Order,
David Axelrod,
T.S.O.L.,
The Detroit Cobras,
Josef K,
MC5,
Dawn Penn,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Jerry's Kids,
Cameo,
June of 44,
Liliput,
Jeff Mills,
Stiv Bators,
Minnie Riperton,
Dark Day,
Mission of Burma,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Wolf Eyes,
Minutemen,
Gong,
Flipper,
Unrelated Segments,
Swell Maps,
Godley & Creme,
The Pretty Things,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Kinks,
DJ Sneak,
Scrapy,
Howard Jones,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Byron Stingily,
Boredoms,
Hot Snakes,
Ultravox,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Smog,
Man Eating Sloth,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Organ,
Niagra,
Todd Rundgren,
Harmonia,
Sandy B,
The Skatalites,
Donald Byrd,
The Gap Band,
Joyce Sims,
Au Pairs,
Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne.
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.