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 Nigeria and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Chocolate Watch Band to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Kurtis Blow. All the underground hits.
All Jerry's Kids tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 clarinet and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Absolute Body Control record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy Collins,
Susan Cadogan,
Brand Nubian,
Liliput,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Bizarre Inc.,
Eurythmics,
FM Einheit,
Matthew Halsall,
The Gories,
UT,
The Flesh Eaters,
48th St. Collective,
Avey Tare,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Throbbing Gristle,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Drexciya,
Tropical Tobacco,
Dave Gahan,
Crash Course in Science,
Barclay James Harvest,
Iggy Pop,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
kango's stein massive,
Grandmaster Flash,
Magma,
Junior Murvin,
Suburban Knight,
Scientists,
Piero Umiliani,
Byron Stingily,
The Remains,
Grey Daturas,
Ice-T,
New Order,
X-102,
David Axelrod,
Colin Newman,
The Saints,
Mantronix,
Henry Cow,
The Index,
Todd Terry,
Graham Central Station,
Aural Exciters,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Big Daddy Kane,
Oneida,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Tom Boy,
Gerry Rafferty,
Yaz,
Spandau Ballet,
Radiohead,
Sister Nancy,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Connie Case,
Robert Görl,
Wasted Youth,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.