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 Zambia and from Hong Kong.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the mellotron 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 PIL to the techno 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 Howard Jones. All the underground hits.
All Kango’s Stein Massive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Public Enemy 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mark Hollis,
The Victims,
Crash Course in Science,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Reuben Wilson,
Buzzcocks,
Stetsasonic,
The Fall,
Kerrie Biddell,
Camberwell Now,
Brick,
Max Romeo,
Ken Boothe,
Eli Mardock,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bad Manners,
Heaven 17,
Schoolly D,
Average White Band,
Aaron Thompson,
The Gladiators,
David Axelrod,
Dual Sessions,
The Dead C,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Vogues,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Slits,
DJ Style,
Roxy Music,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Massinfluence,
John Cale,
the Slits,
Arab on Radar,
Barbara Tucker,
Tres Demented,
The Count Five,
Television,
Graham Central Station,
Neil Young,
The Slackers,
Franke,
Warren Ellis,
Ralphi Rosario,
Blancmange,
Sonic Youth,
Can,
Sparks,
MC5,
Wire,
The Buckinghams,
Eddi Front,
Lalann,
Sexual Harrassment,
Saccharine Trust,
Arcadia,
The Human League,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Robert Görl,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bang On A Can,
Skaos,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.