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 Senegal and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in 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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Marvin Gaye to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Selector Dub Narcotic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tears for Fears record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Smog,
The Offenders,
Grey Daturas,
Joy Division,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Skaos,
Ronnie Foster,
The Walker Brothers,
The Fall,
These Immortal Souls,
The Slits,
Michelle Simonal,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Juan Atkins,
Pharoah Sanders,
Shoche,
The Vogues,
Con Funk Shun,
Aswad,
H. Thieme,
F. McDonald,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Urselle,
Black Pus,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Young Marble Giants,
Bad Manners,
Negative Approach,
Brass Construction,
Barbara Tucker,
Bobby Womack,
Tropical Tobacco,
Brand Nubian,
Outsiders,
The Pretty Things,
KRS-One,
David Axelrod,
Easy Going,
the Slits,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Ponytail,
Faust,
Quantec,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Associates,
Average White Band,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Throbbing Gristle,
Erasure,
The Evens,
Max Romeo,
Pere Ubu,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Move,
Mad Mike,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Porter Ricks,
Deakin,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.