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 Vanuatu and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Marcia Griffiths to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Fifty Foot Hose. All the underground hits.
All Ponytail tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Lydon,
Jawbox,
Kerri Chandler,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Brick,
Rakim,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Dennis Brown,
Bauhaus,
Don Cherry,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tim Buckley,
The Black Dice,
Fat Boys,
Crash Course in Science,
Main Source,
Johnny Clarke,
Donald Byrd,
The Saints,
Man Eating Sloth,
B.T. Express,
Bootsy Collins,
Can,
Rod Modell,
LL Cool J,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
A Flock of Seagulls,
X-101,
AZ,
R.M.O.,
Symarip,
Eli Mardock,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Cramps,
Nils Olav,
Los Fastidios,
Bill Near,
The Remains,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Albert Ayler,
PIL,
Bobbi Humphrey,
F. McDonald,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Mo-Dettes,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Rosa Yemen,
Loose Ends,
Yusef Lateef,
Smog,
The Durutti Column,
Accadde A,
The Doors,
In Retrospect,
H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme.
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.