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 Syria and from Bologna.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the sitar 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 Los Fastidios to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The J.B.'s. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Detroit Cobras 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Johnny Osbourne,
Reagan Youth,
Anthony Braxton,
Freddie Wadling,
Unrelated Segments,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Godley & Creme,
The Happenings,
PIL,
The Doors,
Dual Sessions,
Deadbeat,
The Selecter,
Crispian St. Peters,
These Immortal Souls,
John Coltrane,
The Monochrome Set,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Aswad,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Stetsasonic,
Soft Cell,
Ronan,
The Grass Roots,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Hardrive,
Audionom,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Martian,
B.T. Express,
DNA,
The United States of America,
Colin Newman,
The Index,
Jeff Lynne,
Public Image Ltd.,
Mandrill,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
K-Klass,
Absolute Body Control,
Scion,
Joe Finger,
A Certain Ratio,
Eric Copeland,
Eric Dolphy,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Q and Not U,
Sixth Finger,
Procol Harum,
Livin' Joy,
Essential Logic,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Make Up,
Von Mondo,
Liliput,
Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks.
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.