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 Sri Lanka and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Ponytail to the grime 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 Wings. All the underground hits.
All Mary Jane Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gary Puckett & The Union Gap 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Throbbing Gristle record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Vogues,
Pantytec,
Freddie Wadling,
The Moody Blues,
Eric Dolphy,
The Trojans,
Marmalade,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
LL Cool J,
Wally Richardson,
Donald Byrd,
The Barracudas,
Lou Reed,
Clear Light,
Boogie Down Productions,
Althea and Donna,
Cybotron,
Saccharine Trust,
Faust,
Michelle Simonal,
Alice Coltrane,
The Cramps,
Neu!,
Mo-Dettes,
Kurtis Blow,
Ultravox,
Banda Bassotti,
Neil Young,
Eric Copeland,
Skaos,
Ornette Coleman,
The Star Department,
Kerrie Biddell,
Average White Band,
David Axelrod,
Lower 48,
The Saints,
Matthew Halsall,
Television Personalities,
Crispy Ambulance,
John Cale,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Suicide,
Sly & The Family Stone,
E-Dancer,
La Düsseldorf,
the Swans,
Roxy Music,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Laurel Aitken,
Mantronix,
The Human League,
Piero Umiliani,
Negative Approach,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Tropical Tobacco,
Flash Fearless,
the Slits,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Martian, The Martian, The Martian, The Martian.
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.