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 Niger and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 Absolute Body Control to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Urselle. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Walker Brothers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gladiators,
Young Marble Giants,
Al Stewart,
Girls At Our Best!,
Angry Samoans,
Peter and Kerry,
Sun Ra,
Dawn Penn,
Soulsonic Force,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
New York Dolls,
the Bar-Kays,
Joy Division,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Laurel Aitken,
Isaac Hayes,
Jerry's Kids,
PIL,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Evens,
The Trojans,
Black Sheep,
Hoover,
Excepter,
Lou Christie,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Residents,
Bizarre Inc.,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Juan Atkins,
John Lydon,
The Stooges,
The Happenings,
Tommy Roe,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Bauhaus,
Clear Light,
Joe Smooth,
The Mummies,
E-Dancer,
Los Fastidios,
Interpol,
The Fortunes,
Monolake,
Radiohead,
Subhumans,
Yaz,
Dark Day,
Surgeon,
Schoolly D,
The Kinks,
The Fall,
Sister Nancy,
The Young Rascals,
Loose Ends,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Tubeway Army,
Yazoo,
Ultravox,
Yellowson,
Bang On A Can,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.