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 Turkmenistan and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1967 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Godley & Creme to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Junior Murvin. All the underground hits.
All Ronnie Foster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lizzy Mercier Descloux record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 guitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
Lungfish,
Alison Limerick,
The Red Krayola,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Johnny Clarke,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Gang Gang Dance,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Erasure,
Procol Harum,
Boredoms,
X-102,
Barbara Tucker,
The Stooges,
Thee Headcoats,
Sixth Finger,
Sun City Girls,
Amon Düül II,
Tubeway Army,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Monks,
Bill Near,
Matthew Bourne,
The Music Machine,
Pharoah Sanders,
Ultravox,
Joe Finger,
Chrome,
Piero Umiliani,
Jandek,
Marcia Griffiths,
Little Man,
Pulsallama,
Roy Ayers,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Shadows of Knight,
Clear Light,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Chris & Cosey,
Reuben Wilson,
the Soft Cell,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Unwound,
The United States of America,
Severed Heads,
Rites of Spring,
Aural Exciters,
John Foxx,
Funky Four + One,
David Bowie,
Basic Channel,
Skarface,
Judy Mowatt,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Schoolly D,
Agent Orange,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.