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 Sierra Leone and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 oboe 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 Buzzcocks to the rock 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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All Joy Division tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Inner City,
Pantytec,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Smog,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Fluxion,
Guru Guru,
The Mummies,
Alice Coltrane,
Intrusion,
Josef K,
The Zeros,
Soul II Soul,
Echospace,
KRS-One,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Gories,
Marc Almond,
The Smiths,
Mandrill,
Marmalade,
Neu!,
Delon & Dalcan,
Silicon Teens,
The Names,
Outsiders,
Ludus,
The Gun Club,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Litter,
Pulsallama,
Agent Orange,
Rapeman,
Roy Ayers,
Severed Heads,
Juan Atkins,
Alison Limerick,
The Remains,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Vogues,
Blake Baxter,
Stereo Dub,
Lou Reed,
Barrington Levy,
Dual Sessions,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Count Five,
Unrelated Segments,
This Heat,
The Searchers,
Tubeway Army,
Skaos,
John Holt,
Bauhaus,
Thee Headcoats,
Bobby Byrd,
cv313,
The Barracudas,
Zero Boys,
Yellowson,
Audionom,
Ten City, Ten City, Ten City, Ten City.
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.