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 Guinea-Bissau and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Y Pants to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Smiths. All the underground hits.
All X-102 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dawn Penn record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Normal record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Audionom,
Suburban Knight,
The Names,
Marmalade,
cv313,
Sight & Sound,
Traffic Nightmare,
Kas Product,
Popol Vuh,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Bar-Kays,
Shoche,
Wire,
Gang Green,
June of 44,
Fela Kuti,
the Swans,
Inner City,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Slits,
Television Personalities,
Johnny Clarke,
Dead Boys,
The Trojans,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Index,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jimmy McGriff,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Essential Logic,
Camouflage,
Aural Exciters,
10cc,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Desert Stars,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Terrestrial Tones,
Flash Fearless,
PIL,
Rufus Thomas,
The Vogues,
Ultra Naté,
Gil Scott Heron,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Todd Rundgren,
Mandrill,
Niagra,
The Buckinghams,
The Velvet Underground,
Howard Jones,
Khruangbin,
Jandek,
Brass Construction,
The Red Krayola,
Roxy Music,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ituana,
Bauhaus,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.