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 Madagascar and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the sitar 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 Alton Ellis to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Suburban Knight. All the underground hits.
All Althea and Donna tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Erasure record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharoah Sanders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Cameo,
The Standells,
These Immortal Souls,
Quantec,
Babytalk,
Shuggie Otis,
Don Cherry,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Jacob Miller,
Pylon,
Eve St. Jones,
A Certain Ratio,
New Order,
Khruangbin,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Names,
R.M.O.,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Fuzztones,
Kaleidoscope,
Goldenarms,
the Human League,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Knickerbockers,
Main Source,
In Retrospect,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Index,
the Slits,
Crime,
Bauhaus,
The Raincoats,
Fad Gadget,
Steve Hackett,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Crispy Ambulance,
Ludus,
The Doobie Brothers,
China Crisis,
Funky Four + One,
The Searchers,
The Leaves,
Harpers Bizarre,
Anakelly,
Lungfish,
Shoche,
Mark Hollis,
James White and The Blacks,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
ABC,
The Detroit Cobras,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Stooges,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Brand Nubian,
Thee Headcoats,
DJ Sneak,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Blackbyrds,
Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord.
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.