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 Togo and from Seoul.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Hasil Adkins to the punk 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 X-102. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ralphi Rosario record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Grass Roots record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radio Birdman,
Monks,
Albert Ayler,
Gil Scott Heron,
Malaria!,
Smog,
Cybotron,
Boz Scaggs,
The Move,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Dawn Penn,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Liliput,
Schoolly D,
John Coltrane,
Lightning Bolt,
Visage,
Tubeway Army,
Camberwell Now,
the Human League,
Prince Buster,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Misunderstood,
Brand Nubian,
Thompson Twins,
The Sound,
Arcadia,
Mad Mike,
Glenn Branca,
Public Enemy,
Janne Schatter,
The Motions,
Sarah Menescal,
The Index,
The Dirtbombs,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Scratch Acid,
Sonny Sharrock,
Roxy Music,
Arab on Radar,
Kurtis Blow,
Nils Olav,
Aural Exciters,
48th St. Collective,
World's Most,
Con Funk Shun,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Isaac Hayes,
Thee Headcoats,
The Angels of Light,
Laurel Aitken,
Underground Resistance,
Cluster,
Livin' Joy,
Nico,
Nirvana,
Jandek,
Skriet,
Donny Hathaway,
Idris Muhammad,
Michelle Simonal,
Qualms, Qualms, Qualms, Qualms.
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.