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 Senegal and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Janne Schatter to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All Little Man tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barbara Tucker record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television Personalities record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
Oneida,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Television,
Bush Tetras,
Susan Cadogan,
Derrick May,
Depeche Mode,
Kurtis Blow,
Rakim,
The Monochrome Set,
The Names,
Niagra,
Royal Trux,
The Modern Lovers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Andrew Hill,
Tres Demented,
Underground Resistance,
Peter and Kerry,
Bauhaus,
John Holt,
Alice Coltrane,
Morten Harket,
Goldenarms,
Essential Logic,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Yaz,
Ultimate Spinach,
OOIOO,
Yellowson,
Lakeside,
Joey Negro,
The Wake,
Al Stewart,
Ornette Coleman,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Durutti Column,
Glenn Branca,
Yazoo,
Black Pus,
X-Ray Spex,
Fatback Band,
Johnny Clarke,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Vogues,
Sex Pistols,
Warren Ellis,
Ronan,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Joyce Sims,
Lyres,
David Axelrod,
Procol Harum,
Qualms,
Gregory Isaacs,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Idris Muhammad,
Arthur Verocai,
The Motions,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy.
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.