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 Grenada and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 The Pretty Things to the grime 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 Joyce Sims. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Parrish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Royal Trux,
Joyce Sims,
Flamin' Groovies,
Lightning Bolt,
Television,
Scott Walker,
The Five Americans,
Rakim,
Half Japanese,
KRS-One,
The Standells,
R.M.O.,
The Black Dice,
Easy Going,
The Beau Brummels,
Lakeside,
The Golliwogs,
Jesper Dahlback,
Bob Dylan,
ABC,
Jeff Mills,
The Count Five,
Alphaville,
Nils Olav,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Slits,
Ultravox,
Popol Vuh,
The Residents,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Sixth Finger,
Visage,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Fortunes,
Malaria!,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Crispian St. Peters,
Colin Newman,
Lou Reed,
Surgeon,
Scion,
Dennis Brown,
Heaven 17,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Jandek,
Organ,
Theoretical Girls,
The Last Poets,
Man Eating Sloth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Gil Scott Heron,
Urselle,
Stetsasonic,
Saccharine Trust,
Tom Boy,
B.T. Express,
The Monks,
X-101,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.