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 Burkina and from Mumbai.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 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 Guru Guru to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cabaret Voltaire record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 theremin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Rites of Spring,
The Young Rascals,
The Stooges,
The Buckinghams,
Oneida,
Colin Newman,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Brand Nubian,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Albert Ayler,
DJ Sneak,
Talk Talk,
The Golliwogs,
Crime,
The Red Krayola,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Slave,
The United States of America,
Fear,
Essential Logic,
One Last Wish,
Hot Snakes,
Tubeway Army,
Symarip,
Marcia Griffiths,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Marshall Jefferson,
Tomorrow,
Crispy Ambulance,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Lou Christie,
Pagans,
Gang Starr,
Terry Callier,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Excepter,
Nick Fraelich,
Ossler,
Procol Harum,
Duran Duran,
Grauzone,
Anakelly,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Joy Division,
Ornette Coleman,
Ronnie Foster,
Joyce Sims,
Lindisfarne,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sexual Harrassment,
Sister Nancy,
The Invisible,
DJ Style,
Gabor Szabo,
Anthony Braxton,
Scion,
The Count Five,
Bobby Byrd,
Slick Rick,
Skarface,
the Association, the Association, the Association, the Association.
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.