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 Zimbabwe and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Slick Rick to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Fear. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ituana,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Sixth Finger,
The Toasters,
Scratch Acid,
The Detroit Cobras,
X-102,
The Electric Prunes,
Hashim,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Moleskins,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Mummies,
The Motions,
Quantec,
Tim Buckley,
Ornette Coleman,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Slick Rick,
Quando Quango,
Donny Hathaway,
Neu!,
The Remains,
Sarah Menescal,
The Fugs,
Derrick May,
The Pop Group,
Leonard Cohen,
The Knickerbockers,
Intrusion,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fugazi,
Bobby Byrd,
Radio Birdman,
Rod Modell,
a-ha,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ultimate Spinach,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Terrestrial Tones,
Cheater Slicks,
Popol Vuh,
Soft Cell,
John Cale,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The United States of America,
Accadde A,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Moss Icon,
Pharoah Sanders,
Vladislav Delay,
The Last Poets,
The Standells,
Silicon Teens,
Cameo,
The Velvet Underground,
Duran Duran,
The Barracudas,
Funkadelic,
Freddie Wadling,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity.
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.