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 Nauru and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Marmalade to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Victims. All the underground hits.
All Franke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Red Lorry Yellow Lorry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin 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 Tremeloes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Bill Wells,
Siglo XX,
Theoretical Girls,
Ultimate Spinach,
Delta 5,
Swell Maps,
John Foxx,
Malaria!,
Aloha Tigers,
Gichy Dan,
Pantaleimon,
Dawn Penn,
Joey Negro,
Sun City Girls,
The Selecter,
The Motions,
Mars,
Nation of Ulysses,
Idris Muhammad,
The Buckinghams,
Althea and Donna,
Stetsasonic,
Ponytail,
The Monks,
The Busters,
These Immortal Souls,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Supertramp,
Bizarre Inc.,
Ten City,
Gerry Rafferty,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Swans,
Q65,
John Holt,
Minutemen,
a-ha,
The Flesh Eaters,
Fugazi,
The Cramps,
Iggy Pop,
The Fire Engines,
Jimmy McGriff,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Offenders,
Bush Tetras,
Nick Fraelich,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
the Normal,
The Modern Lovers,
The Victims,
Alphaville,
Thee Headcoats,
Deepchord,
Lindisfarne,
The Standells,
Warren Ellis,
Echospace, Echospace, Echospace, Echospace.
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.