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 Morocco and from Spokane.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Gang of Four to the grime 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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Pylon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Dead C record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Human League,
Ohio Players,
Sight & Sound,
Delta 5,
The Cowsills,
Second Layer,
The Barracudas,
The Searchers,
Kenny Larkin,
Flamin' Groovies,
Scrapy,
Joe Smooth,
Cabaret Voltaire,
the Swans,
Derrick Morgan,
B.T. Express,
Essential Logic,
Sugar Minott,
Das Ding,
Barry Ungar,
Howard Jones,
Pantaleimon,
The Names,
Pylon,
Swans,
Popol Vuh,
The Blackbyrds,
Crooked Eye,
John Lydon,
Soulsonic Force,
Delon & Dalcan,
Model 500,
Metal Thangz,
Gang Starr,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Eric B and Rakim,
Robert Wyatt,
Stereo Dub,
Eric Copeland,
Mission of Burma,
Pere Ubu,
Sällskapet,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Electric Prunes,
The Smiths,
Los Fastidios,
The Residents,
Funky Four + One,
Mark Hollis,
Cecil Taylor,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Dead C,
The Evens,
Josef K,
The Knickerbockers,
This Heat,
The Vogues,
Dark Day,
Hashim,
Symarip,
Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside.
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.