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 Sweden and from Stockholm.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the crunk 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 Motorama. All the underground hits.
All Notorious Big And Bone Thugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maurizio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Richard Hell and the Voidoids record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Lydon,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Bill Wells,
Don Cherry,
Todd Rundgren,
Dorothy Ashby,
Cheater Slicks,
E-Dancer,
Colin Newman,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
the Slits,
Harmonia,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Quantec,
Goldenarms,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Average White Band,
Cal Tjader,
Theoretical Girls,
Kas Product,
AZ,
The Red Krayola,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Pussy Galore,
The Birthday Party,
Malaria!,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Velvet Underground,
Mad Mike,
Cluster,
Frankie Knuckles,
Panda Bear,
Deakin,
Jimmy McGriff,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Dead C,
Boogie Down Productions,
Shoche,
Agent Orange,
The Cowsills,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Leaves,
Joey Negro,
Subhumans,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Blancmange,
The Offenders,
Slave,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Warsaw,
Porter Ricks,
Avey Tare,
The Misunderstood,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Susan Cadogan,
Pole,
Bobby Womack,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus.
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.