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 Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 organ 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 Marc Almond to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gil Scott Heron. All the underground hits.
All Howard Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tom Boy 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
DNA,
Pantaleimon,
Public Enemy,
The Grass Roots,
Monks,
June of 44,
The Trojans,
Marvin Gaye,
B.T. Express,
Sonny Sharrock,
Rufus Thomas,
Supertramp,
Joyce Sims,
Morten Harket,
The Pretty Things,
Circle Jerks,
Warsaw,
Jeru the Damaja,
Q65,
U.S. Maple,
Fatback Band,
Bobby Sherman,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Ohio Players,
Oneida,
Erasure,
Cal Tjader,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Ultimate Spinach,
Terrestrial Tones,
Ultra Naté,
Byron Stingily,
Prince Buster,
Dorothy Ashby,
David McCallum,
Connie Case,
Sex Pistols,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Parry Music,
Yaz,
Tom Boy,
Sight & Sound,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Shadows of Knight,
Lou Reed,
The Star Department,
Mad Mike,
Barclay James Harvest,
Amon Düül,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Spandau Ballet,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Lucky Dragons,
Aloha Tigers,
Malaria!,
The Electric Prunes,
Ossler,
Main Source, Main Source, Main Source, Main Source.
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.