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 Germany and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Cameo to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Davy DMX. All the underground hits.
All Minnie Riperton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Section 25 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Avey Tare,
The Slits,
Throbbing Gristle,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Dennis Brown,
The Saints,
U.S. Maple,
Outsiders,
New York Dolls,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Crispian St. Peters,
Gang of Four,
Lebanon Hanover,
Subhumans,
Piero Umiliani,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Ralphi Rosario,
ABBA,
LL Cool J,
Patti Smith,
Monks,
Kerrie Biddell,
Man Parrish,
Bauhaus,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Interpol,
Thee Headcoats,
Soft Cell,
Stockholm Monsters,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Cecil Taylor,
Jimmy McGriff,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Lakeside,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Whodini,
the Sonics,
Japan,
the Soft Cell,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Cramps,
Sister Nancy,
Gang Green,
Connie Case,
Roy Ayers,
Hot Snakes,
Blancmange,
Lou Reed,
Warren Ellis,
Newcleus,
Mission of Burma,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Deakin,
The Flesh Eaters,
Grauzone,
Dead Boys,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.