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 Tuvalu and from Lagos.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Joe Finger to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Flesh Eaters. All the underground hits.
All It's A Beautiful Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
The Five Americans,
Swans,
The Gun Club,
The Angels of Light,
Lakeside,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Grass Roots,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Nik Kershaw,
Moby Grape,
Suburban Knight,
Wolf Eyes,
Tres Demented,
Ituana,
X-101,
Camouflage,
Reagan Youth,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sun Ra,
Arcadia,
Sandy B,
New York Dolls,
Fat Boys,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Bill Near,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Jacques Brel,
Roy Ayers,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Golliwogs,
R.M.O.,
Sugar Minott,
Scion,
Mandrill,
Crispy Ambulance,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Fugs,
Eric Copeland,
the Swans,
B.T. Express,
Blake Baxter,
Smog,
Suicide,
Derrick Morgan,
Organ,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Doobie Brothers,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Crash Course in Science,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Unwound,
Susan Cadogan,
Bauhaus,
Babytalk,
Mo-Dettes,
The Last Poets,
Oneida,
Kas Product,
Bronski Beat,
Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus.
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.