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 Bolivia and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Crooked Eye to the rap 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 the Human League. All the underground hits.
All This Heat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Absolute Body Control record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Lydon,
The Walker Brothers,
The Slits,
Dead Boys,
Theoretical Girls,
Henry Cow,
Stockholm Monsters,
Crime,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
PIL,
Wasted Youth,
E-Dancer,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sällskapet,
Public Image Ltd.,
Kayak,
Idris Muhammad,
In Retrospect,
Qualms,
Mars,
The Shadows of Knight,
Fat Boys,
Stetsasonic,
Peter and Kerry,
Talk Talk,
The Seeds,
Skarface,
Girls At Our Best!,
Swell Maps,
Y Pants,
The Vogues,
Lebanon Hanover,
Marcia Griffiths,
Jeru the Damaja,
Crispian St. Peters,
Drive Like Jehu,
Electric Prunes,
Bob Dylan,
Terrestrial Tones,
Deakin,
48th St. Collective,
The Cosmic Jokers,
X-101,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Nik Kershaw,
Scrapy,
Eden Ahbez,
Lightning Bolt,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Dawn Penn,
Altered Images,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Ludus,
Massinfluence,
8 Eyed Spy,
JFA,
Sonic Youth,
the Normal,
Goldenarms,
Gang of Four,
Jeff Mills,
Pole,
Simply Red,
The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills.
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.