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 Albania and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1967 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 John Lydon to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pagans 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Outsiders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sparks,
Talk Talk,
Tres Demented,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Todd Terry,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Smoke,
The Golliwogs,
The J.B.'s,
Grauzone,
Thompson Twins,
The Mummies,
David McCallum,
Nico,
Albert Ayler,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Erasure,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Patti Smith,
Reagan Youth,
John Lydon,
Schoolly D,
Crispian St. Peters,
Wolf Eyes,
Fluxion,
Nation of Ulysses,
Rapeman,
The Smiths,
Jandek,
ABC,
Marshall Jefferson,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Massinfluence,
The Invisible,
Smog,
Derrick May,
Au Pairs,
Johnny Osbourne,
Buzzcocks,
Colin Newman,
Make Up,
Minny Pops,
Joensuu 1685,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Kas Product,
Shoche,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Gang Starr,
Tim Buckley,
Crash Course in Science,
Wire,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Das Ding,
Harpers Bizarre,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
E-Dancer,
Nick Fraelich,
The Barracudas,
Bobby Womack,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.