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 Papua New Guinea and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the linndrum 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 June Days to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Eyeless In Gaza. All the underground hits.
All Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sam Rivers 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thompson Twins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Patti Smith,
The Blues Magoos,
Letta Mbulu,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Blake Baxter,
Fluxion,
Radio Birdman,
Bad Manners,
Alton Ellis,
Scrapy,
Kas Product,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Delta 5,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sarah Menescal,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Schoolly D,
Jandek,
Parry Music,
Lungfish,
Skarface,
The Toasters,
The Gories,
Donald Byrd,
Main Source,
Roy Ayers,
This Heat,
Cecil Taylor,
MDC,
John Cale,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Frankie Knuckles,
Jacob Miller,
Malaria!,
Hot Snakes,
The Buckinghams,
Public Enemy,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Raincoats,
Swell Maps,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Heaven 17,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
New Age Steppers,
Isaac Hayes,
Theoretical Girls,
The Pretty Things,
Minutemen,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Happenings,
Barbara Tucker,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sound Behaviour,
Barclay James Harvest,
Sparks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Junior Murvin,
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.