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 Syria and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 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 Gories to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Peter & Gordon. All the underground hits.
All The Smoke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacques Brel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a F. McDonald record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Lydon,
cv313,
Mars,
The Evens,
Arcadia,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Fugs,
Minnie Riperton,
Ultra Naté,
Country Teasers,
The Gories,
Scrapy,
Flipper,
the Association,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Germs,
Roger Hodgson,
F. McDonald,
The Slackers,
Charles Mingus,
Theoretical Girls,
Urselle,
Glambeats Corp.,
DJ Sneak,
Unrelated Segments,
Ludus,
The Dead C,
Big Daddy Kane,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Infiniti,
Pantytec,
Peter and Kerry,
Funkadelic,
The Star Department,
Bootsy Collins,
Skriet,
Bob Dylan,
Boz Scaggs,
Little Man,
The Tremeloes,
Amazonics,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Drive Like Jehu,
Section 25,
Panda Bear,
Tommy Roe,
the Swans,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Standells,
Godley & Creme,
Cluster,
June Days,
Joe Finger,
Television,
Monolake,
Groovy Waters,
Roxy Music,
The Invisible,
Heaven 17,
Rekid,
Camberwell Now,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Monks,
Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro.
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.