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 Nauru and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Hong Kong.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Sly & The Family Stone to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Cybotron. All the underground hits.
All Eric Dolphy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rekid record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Charles Mingus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Lydon,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Offenders,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Jawbox,
DNA,
The Residents,
Television Personalities,
Porter Ricks,
Theoretical Girls,
Con Funk Shun,
Bob Dylan,
Lindisfarne,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Mojo Men,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
New Order,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Goldenarms,
The Moody Blues,
Colin Newman,
The Selecter,
Boogie Down Productions,
This Heat,
Derrick May,
The Seeds,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Smiths,
Dennis Brown,
Saccharine Trust,
The Neon Judgement,
Lyres,
Cecil Taylor,
Swell Maps,
Second Layer,
The Fire Engines,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Monks,
The Invisible,
Janne Schatter,
Harry Pussy,
The Pretty Things,
Rekid,
Public Enemy,
Rhythm & Sound,
These Immortal Souls,
Sister Nancy,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Black Flag,
Skarface,
Jacques Brel,
Hoover,
Cymande,
Blake Baxter,
Intrusion,
Barry Ungar,
Robert Hood,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Brick,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills.
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.