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 Mali and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Alarm Clocks to the rock 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 Erykah Badu. All the underground hits.
All London Community Gospel Choir tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Germs 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a JFA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Janne Schatter,
The Fall,
The Gap Band,
Steve Hackett,
Stereo Dub,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Tres Demented,
Pussy Galore,
The Buckinghams,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gang of Four,
Tim Buckley,
Lucky Dragons,
Grey Daturas,
ABC,
One Last Wish,
Interpol,
Drive Like Jehu,
Bang On A Can,
Jerry's Kids,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Byron Stingily,
Alice Coltrane,
Thee Headcoats,
JFA,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nation of Ulysses,
Roger Hodgson,
The Barracudas,
Kool Moe Dee,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Jawbox,
Throbbing Gristle,
Index,
Agent Orange,
Goldenarms,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Evens,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Rapeman,
Gabor Szabo,
Mo-Dettes,
Brothers Johnson,
Skriet,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Kinks,
The Busters,
Main Source,
Y Pants,
Patti Smith,
The Raincoats,
Schoolly D,
Wally Richardson,
Laurel Aitken,
Pantytec,
Freddie Wadling,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
a-ha,
Bill Wells,
Rufus Thomas,
China Crisis,
Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust.
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.