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 Burundi and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 Manchester and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 marimba 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 Offenders to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Albert Ayler. All the underground hits.
All Gregory Isaacs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Saccharine Trust record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang of Four,
L. Decosne,
Rites of Spring,
The Mummies,
The Modern Lovers,
Urselle,
Todd Rundgren,
Can,
Silicon Teens,
Roxette,
Brick,
Bluetip,
Glenn Branca,
The Techniques,
Joe Finger,
Amazonics,
The Human League,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Stooges,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Alton Ellis,
Scan 7,
MC5,
Wings,
Faust,
Blake Baxter,
Throbbing Gristle,
Alice Coltrane,
The Last Poets,
Boogie Down Productions,
Arcadia,
Infiniti,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Donald Byrd,
Laurel Aitken,
John Coltrane,
Scion,
Technova,
Bronski Beat,
the Slits,
ABBA,
Cal Tjader,
Lower 48,
Nick Fraelich,
Scratch Acid,
LL Cool J,
Adolescents,
The Fire Engines,
Roy Ayers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Marmalade,
Crash Course in Science,
Gang Green,
Jandek,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Joensuu 1685,
The Cowsills,
Quando Quango,
The Dirtbombs,
New Order,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru.
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.