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 France and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in 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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Joe Smooth to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Residents. All the underground hits.
All Thee Headcoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aloha Tigers,
John Holt,
Max Romeo,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Underground Resistance,
Can,
The Neon Judgement,
The Mummies,
Magazine,
Vainqueur,
Avey Tare,
The Golliwogs,
The Sound,
Hot Snakes,
Deepchord,
Robert Görl,
Animal Collective,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Glenn Branca,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
EPMD,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Mandrill,
Banda Bassotti,
Ronnie Foster,
The Dave Clark Five,
Goldenarms,
Pantytec,
Amazonics,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Scrapy,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
48th St. Collective,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Sonics,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Cymande,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Mad Mike,
The Toasters,
Tres Demented,
Barbara Tucker,
Crispian St. Peters,
Gong,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Busters,
Matthew Bourne,
The Smoke,
Schoolly D,
Funky Four + One,
the Bar-Kays,
Graham Central Station,
Sugar Minott,
Ornette Coleman,
The United States of America,
Toni Rubio,
Bauhaus,
Interpol,
Albert Ayler,
Audionom, Audionom, Audionom, Audionom.
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.