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 Panama and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 808 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 Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 the Slits. All the underground hits.
All Derrick Morgan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magazine 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Justin Hinds & The Dominoes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Divine Comedy,
The Motions,
Unwound,
Joey Negro,
Jacques Brel,
DNA,
Nils Olav,
Sex Pistols,
Marmalade,
Sam Rivers,
Young Marble Giants,
Unrelated Segments,
FM Einheit,
The Fire Engines,
The Skatalites,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Blancmange,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Gastr Del Sol,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Nas,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Kinks,
Ice-T,
Dawn Penn,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gregory Isaacs,
Rufus Thomas,
Juan Atkins,
Scientists,
Marine Girls,
The Fugs,
Parry Music,
The Raincoats,
Sällskapet,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Circle Jerks,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
UT,
The Fall,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Fat Boys,
Soul II Soul,
Bang On A Can,
Avey Tare,
Mad Mike,
Chrome,
Faraquet,
Janne Schatter,
The Index,
John Cale,
The Last Poets,
Porter Ricks,
X-101,
The Slackers,
Hardrive,
Duran Duran,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Slave,
Lou Reed,
The Fuzztones,
Niagra, Niagra, Niagra, Niagra.
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.