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 New Zealand and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Tommy Roe 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 JFA. All the underground hits.
All Peter & Gordon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Archie Shepp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gladiators record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Leonard Cohen,
New York Dolls,
Pantaleimon,
Camberwell Now,
Agitation Free,
Talk Talk,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Hardrive,
Joy Division,
L. Decosne,
Graham Central Station,
Bill Near,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Delon & Dalcan,
Skaos,
Bobby Womack,
Oblivians,
Aaron Thompson,
The Last Poets,
The Litter,
Maurizio,
Popol Vuh,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
A Flock of Seagulls,
the Soft Cell,
Colin Newman,
The Saints,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Essential Logic,
La Düsseldorf,
The Count Five,
Tomorrow,
Sugar Minott,
The Seeds,
Sonny Sharrock,
Jandek,
Isaac Hayes,
Freddie Wadling,
The Gun Club,
Radio Birdman,
Unrelated Segments,
Organ,
Sound Behaviour,
Quantec,
the Germs,
The Victims,
Rosa Yemen,
The Neon Judgement,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Charles Mingus,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Fall,
Simply Red,
Rakim,
The Standells,
The Grass Roots,
Morten Harket,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Blues Magoos,
Althea and Donna,
Duran Duran, Duran Duran, Duran Duran, Duran Duran.
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.