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 Kosovo and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 arpeggiator 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Goldenarms. All the underground hits.
All Josef K tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ash Ra Tempel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Camouflage,
Iggy Pop,
Grandmaster Flash,
R.M.O.,
Neil Young,
Crash Course in Science,
Nick Fraelich,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Mark Hollis,
Joey Negro,
Theoretical Girls,
Kurtis Blow,
Eric Dolphy,
Barrington Levy,
The Happenings,
John Coltrane,
Quadrant,
Slick Rick,
Mars,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Busters,
AZ,
Robert Wyatt,
The Doors,
Pulsallama,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Electric Prunes,
Chris & Cosey,
The Wake,
Joy Division,
Eric B and Rakim,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Franke,
Michelle Simonal,
Dual Sessions,
Massinfluence,
Colin Newman,
June of 44,
The American Breed,
Drive Like Jehu,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Josef K,
Ultimate Spinach,
Lalo Schifrin,
Surgeon,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Fela Kuti,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Motions,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sound Behaviour,
Barclay James Harvest,
These Immortal Souls,
Pere Ubu,
John Foxx,
Gastr Del Sol,
Archie Shepp,
Rufus Thomas,
Bad Manners,
Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5.
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.