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 Somalia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Derrick May to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Liaisons Dangereuses. All the underground hits.
All Lebanon Hanover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radiohead,
Janne Schatter,
Carl Craig,
The United States of America,
Blake Baxter,
David Axelrod,
Matthew Bourne,
The Gories,
Flash Fearless,
Neu!,
Man Eating Sloth,
June of 44,
Yazoo,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Grass Roots,
Agitation Free,
the Swans,
Wire,
Amon Düül,
Reagan Youth,
Parry Music,
Monolake,
One Last Wish,
James White and The Blacks,
Alison Limerick,
Trumans Water,
Symarip,
T. Rex,
The Skatalites,
Mandrill,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The J.B.'s,
Lou Christie,
Masters at Work,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Dead C,
Crooked Eye,
Angry Samoans,
Junior Murvin,
Flipper,
John Holt,
Eurythmics,
Barry Ungar,
The Kinks,
The Music Machine,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Rakim,
JFA,
Kerrie Biddell,
Kurtis Blow,
The Fuzztones,
PIL,
Fugazi,
Jandek,
Dead Boys,
Toni Rubio,
Lebanon Hanover,
Grauzone,
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.