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 San Marino and from Winnipeg.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the oboe 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 Nick Fraelich to the rock 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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All The Black Dice tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 harpsichord and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Be Bop Deluxe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Smoke,
Juan Atkins,
John Foxx,
Soft Machine,
John Coltrane,
Wings,
the Slits,
Ossler,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Grandmaster Flash,
Silicon Teens,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Gichy Dan,
Ralphi Rosario,
Isaac Hayes,
Aaron Thompson,
Jacques Brel,
Chris & Cosey,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Angry Samoans,
John Cale,
Rites of Spring,
Quantec,
Suburban Knight,
The Smiths,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Black Pus,
Tommy Roe,
Quando Quango,
Anthony Braxton,
U.S. Maple,
Sam Rivers,
Leonard Cohen,
The Grass Roots,
The Gladiators,
The Star Department,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Animal Collective,
KRS-One,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Shoche,
Laurel Aitken,
Sly & The Family Stone,
H. Thieme,
CMW,
Eric Dolphy,
Popol Vuh,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
the Normal,
The Toasters,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Banda Bassotti,
This Heat,
Byron Stingily,
Albert Ayler,
Technova,
Neil Young,
Porter Ricks,
Idris Muhammad,
These Immortal Souls,
Howard Jones,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
New Age Steppers,
Heaven 17, Heaven 17, Heaven 17, Heaven 17.
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.