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 Senegal and from Houston.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 oboe 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 Jawbox to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Joe Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fela Kuti 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crispy Ambulance,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
H. Thieme,
Gang of Four,
Sarah Menescal,
Unrelated Segments,
The Sonics,
Marshall Jefferson,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Fluxion,
Joyce Sims,
Absolute Body Control,
Siglo XX,
Sparks,
Wire,
F. McDonald,
The Fall,
Fad Gadget,
the Bar-Kays,
Stetsasonic,
L. Decosne,
Television Personalities,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rites of Spring,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Frankie Knuckles,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Divine Comedy,
In Retrospect,
Moebius,
Colin Newman,
The Five Americans,
Brand Nubian,
Donny Hathaway,
The Trojans,
The Raincoats,
Country Teasers,
Jandek,
Susan Cadogan,
Altered Images,
Isaac Hayes,
The Skatalites,
The Sound,
Slick Rick,
The Monks,
The Dirtbombs,
KRS-One,
Ronnie Foster,
Ice-T,
Ohio Players,
Eden Ahbez,
Derrick May,
X-101,
Arthur Verocai,
Erasure,
Blossom Toes,
Brick,
CMW,
Joey Negro,
Skriet,
the Swans,
Anthony Braxton,
Rakim, Rakim, Rakim, Rakim.
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.