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 Croatia and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the theremin 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 Alphaville to the rap 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 Robert Görl. All the underground hits.
All Rahsaan Roland Kirk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Star Department,
Sex Pistols,
Suburban Knight,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Duran Duran,
Heaven 17,
Scrapy,
Fad Gadget,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Reagan Youth,
D'Angelo,
Fat Boys,
Deadbeat,
Amazonics,
The Fugs,
Tomorrow,
Absolute Body Control,
The Smoke,
Howard Jones,
The Walker Brothers,
Shoche,
Public Enemy,
Minor Threat,
Dorothy Ashby,
X-101,
The Slackers,
The Toasters,
Patti Smith,
Altered Images,
Echospace,
Magazine,
The Grass Roots,
The Wake,
Black Sheep,
Danielle Patucci,
kango's stein massive,
Graham Central Station,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Slits,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Skarface,
Accadde A,
Quando Quango,
A Certain Ratio,
Hot Snakes,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Smiths,
Camberwell Now,
Albert Ayler,
AZ,
Colin Newman,
The Happenings,
The Black Dice,
New Age Steppers,
Black Flag,
Niagra,
The Gories,
Kas Product,
Jawbox,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer.
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.