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 Swaziland and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Bologna.
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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar 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 The Royal Family And The Poor to the punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Harpers Bizarre. All the underground hits.
All Oneida tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cecil Taylor 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Modern Lovers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Modern Lovers,
Sandy B,
The Saints,
Sound Behaviour,
The Busters,
Sonic Youth,
Terrestrial Tones,
Shuggie Otis,
Prince Buster,
David McCallum,
Archie Shepp,
Pere Ubu,
OOIOO,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bauhaus,
Yazoo,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Charles Mingus,
Quadrant,
DJ Style,
The Dirtbombs,
The Index,
Duran Duran,
Jerry's Kids,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Dead Boys,
Alice Coltrane,
Zapp,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Residents,
Livin' Joy,
Terry Callier,
Minutemen,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Banda Bassotti,
The United States of America,
Hardrive,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
10cc,
Marmalade,
In Retrospect,
Glambeats Corp.,
Kerrie Biddell,
Echospace,
JFA,
EPMD,
Colin Newman,
The Misunderstood,
Tropical Tobacco,
Fat Boys,
48th St. Collective,
Sight & Sound,
Japan,
Cal Tjader,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Second Layer,
La Düsseldorf,
Rod Modell,
New York Dolls,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.