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 Ireland and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Agitation Free to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme. All the underground hits.
All Vainqueur tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Justin Hinds & The Dominoes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Leonard Cohen,
Dawn Penn,
Bronski Beat,
Zapp,
Alton Ellis,
The Music Machine,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gang Starr,
Sex Pistols,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Minutemen,
the Human League,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Martian,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Prince Buster,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Johnny Osbourne,
Harpers Bizarre,
Heaven 17,
Man Parrish,
The Tremeloes,
Alphaville,
Charles Mingus,
The Dead C,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bootsy Collins,
The Human League,
Eve St. Jones,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Masters at Work,
The Monks,
Simply Red,
Duran Duran,
Make Up,
Soulsonic Force,
the Fania All-Stars,
Gastr Del Sol,
Bill Wells,
Kerrie Biddell,
Joyce Sims,
Laurel Aitken,
New Order,
Rakim,
The Doors,
Theoretical Girls,
Pussy Galore,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Gories,
John Holt,
The Wake,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
David Axelrod,
The Young Rascals,
Stiv Bators,
Wally Richardson,
The Fuzztones,
Television,
Roxette,
Camouflage,
Amon Düül II,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.