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 Pakistan and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Selecter to the crunk 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 China Crisis. All the underground hits.
All Avey Tare tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Adolescents record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Skaos,
Lindisfarne,
The Smoke,
Matthew Bourne,
Scan 7,
Boogie Down Productions,
Crispian St. Peters,
Brothers Johnson,
Joey Negro,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
David Axelrod,
Nirvana,
Spandau Ballet,
John Lydon,
Wire,
Cecil Taylor,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Move,
Soft Cell,
Connie Case,
The Cramps,
Guru Guru,
Subhumans,
Sexual Harrassment,
Symarip,
Alice Coltrane,
a-ha,
Monks,
Bobby Sherman,
James Chance & The Contortions,
CMW,
Mo-Dettes,
the Bar-Kays,
The Pop Group,
Flash Fearless,
The Moody Blues,
In Retrospect,
Newcleus,
Ossler,
Idris Muhammad,
the Normal,
The Slits,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Soul Sonic Force,
Iggy Pop,
Outsiders,
The Busters,
Johnny Osbourne,
MDC,
Pylon,
June of 44,
Zero Boys,
Half Japanese,
the Slits,
The Pretty Things,
The Monks,
Eric B and Rakim,
Joensuu 1685,
Wasted Youth,
Aswad, Aswad, Aswad, Aswad.
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.