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 Azerbaijan and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Johannesburg.
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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mark Hollis to the rap 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 Peter & Gordon. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids 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 an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Clarke,
Mandrill,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Techniques,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Five Americans,
The Slits,
Ten City,
Sexual Harrassment,
Brand Nubian,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Outsiders,
The Residents,
Mantronix,
Marvin Gaye,
Tropical Tobacco,
Maurizio,
Scion,
the Soft Cell,
Yellowson,
Dave Gahan,
John Foxx,
Rekid,
48th St. Collective,
Ponytail,
Patti Smith,
The Cramps,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Lou Reed,
Albert Ayler,
Whodini,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Seeds,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Soulsonic Force,
Bobby Byrd,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
JFA,
The Names,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
New Order,
the Slits,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Durutti Column,
Kerri Chandler,
Bob Dylan,
Jandek,
Black Flag,
Deadbeat,
Jesper Dahlback,
Crash Course in Science,
Ornette Coleman,
Jeru the Damaja,
Ituana,
Donald Byrd,
Harmonia,
Gerry Rafferty,
Visage, Visage, Visage, Visage.
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.