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 Barbados and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in 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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Malaria! to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Warren Ellis. All the underground hits.
All DJ Style tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pretty Things record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Order record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Blancmange,
Buzzcocks,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Cecil Taylor,
Jacob Miller,
Faraquet,
The Gladiators,
Skarface,
Theoretical Girls,
The Cure,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Gun Club,
Subhumans,
K-Klass,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Sun Ra,
Ultravox,
Outsiders,
Eddi Front,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Spoonie Gee,
The Last Poets,
Kurtis Blow,
Sam Rivers,
Hoover,
Unrelated Segments,
H. Thieme,
Soul II Soul,
Jimmy McGriff,
Henry Cow,
Tomorrow,
Guru Guru,
Royal Trux,
Radio Birdman,
Soul Sonic Force,
Oblivians,
Kaleidoscope,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Lungfish,
Fat Boys,
Kas Product,
E-Dancer,
Magma,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Altered Images,
Barclay James Harvest,
Pole,
Sex Pistols,
Scott Walker,
Mary Jane Girls,
Rites of Spring,
Make Up,
John Lydon,
Scrapy,
The Skatalites,
Agent Orange,
The Remains,
Delon & Dalcan,
China Crisis,
Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon.
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.