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 Tanzania and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the linndrum 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 T. Rex to the disco 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 Althea and Donna. All the underground hits.
All Blake Baxter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Television,
Zapp,
Leonard Cohen,
James White and The Blacks,
Johnny Clarke,
The Kinks,
The Knickerbockers,
Barbara Tucker,
The Saints,
New Age Steppers,
Ossler,
Alphaville,
Soulsonic Force,
Procol Harum,
Kayak,
Amon Düül,
OOIOO,
Rites of Spring,
F. McDonald,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Stooges,
Gastr Del Sol,
Bluetip,
Jesper Dahlback,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Subhumans,
Television Personalities,
Severed Heads,
The Selecter,
the Germs,
Johnny Osbourne,
Hardrive,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Lalo Schifrin,
EPMD,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Bizarre Inc.,
Magazine,
Technova,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Tres Demented,
Cameo,
a-ha,
David McCallum,
John Holt,
Simply Red,
Cluster,
Sam Rivers,
Deakin,
Swell Maps,
PIL,
Albert Ayler,
Radiopuhelimet,
Stiv Bators,
Popol Vuh,
Buzzcocks,
Delon & Dalcan,
Smog,
Crime,
The Trojans,
Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo.
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.