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 East Timor and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Woodstock.
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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Moby Grape to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Prince Buster. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flamin' Groovies 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eddi Front,
Talk Talk,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Flipper,
Donny Hathaway,
The Fortunes,
Soul II Soul,
The Knickerbockers,
Arcadia,
Ronnie Foster,
Donald Byrd,
Wire,
The Walker Brothers,
the Sonics,
Robert Görl,
Q65,
The Pop Group,
Masters at Work,
Nick Fraelich,
The Blackbyrds,
Scion,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Heaven 17,
Gong,
Carl Craig,
Simply Red,
James White and The Blacks,
Chris & Cosey,
DJ Style,
Lou Reed,
Curtis Mayfield,
Excepter,
Gastr Del Sol,
Jawbox,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Gladiators,
Von Mondo,
the Human League,
Ponytail,
Marmalade,
The Monks,
Pantytec,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Dirtbombs,
Barry Ungar,
Andrew Hill,
Scientists,
The Motions,
Nik Kershaw,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Minutemen,
John Cale,
The Slackers,
Iggy Pop,
Banda Bassotti,
Nico,
Todd Rundgren,
Monks,
Warren Ellis,
Underground Resistance,
Franke, Franke, Franke, Franke.
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.