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 East Timor and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Johannesburg.
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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Au Pairs to the rock 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 Lyres. All the underground hits.
All the Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Clarke record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Peter & Gordon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Outsiders,
Circle Jerks,
Max Romeo,
AZ,
Curtis Mayfield,
Magma,
Shoche,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Donny Hathaway,
Crooked Eye,
Barry Ungar,
Mr. Review,
Althea and Donna,
Yusef Lateef,
Cymande,
The Grass Roots,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rites of Spring,
Blake Baxter,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Mantronix,
Tomorrow,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Rosa Yemen,
Sandy B,
The Motions,
Arcadia,
Eden Ahbez,
Pulsallama,
The United States of America,
Suicide,
Dead Boys,
T.S.O.L.,
Urselle,
Jeru the Damaja,
Stockholm Monsters,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Trojans,
New Order,
The Gladiators,
Darondo,
Pere Ubu,
Brothers Johnson,
Henry Cow,
Aswad,
Siglo XX,
Pharoah Sanders,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Nick Fraelich,
Archie Shepp,
Lower 48,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Buckinghams,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
JFA,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Half Japanese,
Oblivians,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Names, The Names, The Names, The Names.
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.