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 Poland and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 The Shadows of Knight to the rock 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 Ash Ra Tempel. All the underground hits.
All Barry Ungar tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 rhodes and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Scrapy,
Kas Product,
The Modern Lovers,
Black Pus,
Black Sheep,
Cybotron,
In Retrospect,
Mantronix,
Deakin,
Bauhaus,
Isaac Hayes,
Public Enemy,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Altered Images,
Wasted Youth,
Ornette Coleman,
KRS-One,
Index,
EPMD,
The Gories,
the Normal,
Sällskapet,
ABBA,
The Residents,
Pierre Henry,
Nas,
Gang Gang Dance,
Hardrive,
Fluxion,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Simply Red,
Henry Cow,
Rites of Spring,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Boogie Down Productions,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Standells,
Ituana,
Lyres,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Bush Tetras,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Stetsasonic,
Pole,
Black Moon,
Yellowson,
Warsaw,
Jimmy McGriff,
Ronan,
Joe Smooth,
Goldenarms,
Easy Going,
Babytalk,
Negative Approach,
China Crisis,
Joe Finger,
Deadbeat,
Marine Girls,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Arthur Verocai,
Marmalade,
The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed.
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.