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 Tonga and from Calgary.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the snare 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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth to the grime 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 Eve St. Jones. All the underground hits.
All Tommy Roe 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 rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Zeros record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rites of Spring,
Newcleus,
China Crisis,
Roger Hodgson,
The Evens,
Tommy Roe,
the Slits,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Y Pants,
Big Daddy Kane,
Fluxion,
Country Teasers,
Los Fastidios,
Echospace,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Cure,
Niagra,
Lucky Dragons,
Lou Christie,
Zapp,
Neil Young,
R.M.O.,
Underground Resistance,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Moleskins,
Juan Atkins,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Count Five,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Basic Channel,
Negative Approach,
Excepter,
Kevin Saunderson,
Judy Mowatt,
Harpers Bizarre,
Jerry's Kids,
ABBA,
The Saints,
Harmonia,
Scratch Acid,
Barclay James Harvest,
Quando Quango,
Chrome,
Lalo Schifrin,
Peter and Kerry,
Interpol,
Isaac Hayes,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Angels of Light,
the Association,
Agitation Free,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Don Cherry,
Gang Gang Dance,
Bronski Beat,
Japan,
Spoonie Gee,
The Dave Clark Five,
Bluetip,
The Mummies,
KRS-One,
Cameo,
Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment.
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.