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 Madagascar and from Jakarta.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Surgeon to the grunge 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 Funkadelic. All the underground hits.
All Dead Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Sound 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Patti Smith,
The Shadows of Knight,
Lower 48,
Mad Mike,
Eric B and Rakim,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Slits,
Boredoms,
Flash Fearless,
The Dirtbombs,
Wolf Eyes,
Marine Girls,
Colin Newman,
Unwound,
Bizarre Inc.,
Bauhaus,
Sam Rivers,
Kaleidoscope,
Archie Shepp,
Gang Green,
Can,
Quadrant,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Anakelly,
the Slits,
Eddi Front,
Theoretical Girls,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
L. Decosne,
Wire,
Boz Scaggs,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Al Stewart,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
James White and The Blacks,
China Crisis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Joensuu 1685,
Lalann,
Man Eating Sloth,
Godley & Creme,
the Normal,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Country Teasers,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Tears for Fears,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
June of 44,
New Age Steppers,
Technova,
Roy Ayers,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Gap Band,
Lucky Dragons,
Alison Limerick,
Heaven 17,
Qualms,
The Sonics,
Swans,
Arcadia,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.