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 Bahamas and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 10cc. All the underground hits.
All Sam Rivers 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 techno 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 synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Mighty Diamonds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Birthday Party,
Siglo XX,
Swans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Howard Jones,
Eric Copeland,
The Fall,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Thee Headcoats,
The Real Kids,
The Offenders,
Bluetip,
Bobby Womack,
David McCallum,
The Golliwogs,
Unrelated Segments,
Flamin' Groovies,
Easy Going,
The Gories,
The Count Five,
MDC,
Pet Shop Boys,
Laurel Aitken,
Derrick Morgan,
Bizarre Inc.,
Mo-Dettes,
Wolf Eyes,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sällskapet,
Brothers Johnson,
Dead Boys,
Stiv Bators,
Rotary Connection,
Iggy Pop,
Throbbing Gristle,
CMW,
Joensuu 1685,
Lyres,
Funky Four + One,
Tubeway Army,
Radiopuhelimet,
Joe Smooth,
The Martian,
The Monks,
ABBA,
Newcleus,
La Düsseldorf,
Harmonia,
Wings,
Donny Hathaway,
Half Japanese,
Sexual Harrassment,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Scientists,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Soft Machine,
Bad Manners,
Sound Behaviour,
The Velvet Underground,
Massinfluence,
Drive Like Jehu,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.