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 Serbia and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Sandy B to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Fall. All the underground hits.
All Model 500 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rakim 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pagans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q and Not U,
The Moleskins,
Colin Newman,
Loose Ends,
Fad Gadget,
Severed Heads,
Joyce Sims,
The Knickerbockers,
DJ Sneak,
Michelle Simonal,
The Cramps,
The Victims,
The Buckinghams,
The Dirtbombs,
Don Cherry,
Hashim,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Laurel Aitken,
The Birthday Party,
the Slits,
The Fire Engines,
The Five Americans,
Altered Images,
Subhumans,
Wolf Eyes,
The Fall,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Tommy Roe,
Marcia Griffiths,
Eve St. Jones,
Curtis Mayfield,
Rufus Thomas,
Funky Four + One,
Suburban Knight,
Index,
Roxette,
The United States of America,
Darondo,
Amazonics,
the Sonics,
Oblivians,
Bush Tetras,
UT,
The Cure,
Todd Terry,
Gang Gang Dance,
Rod Modell,
Ultimate Spinach,
June of 44,
Ornette Coleman,
Rapeman,
Rakim,
Drive Like Jehu,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Quando Quango,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Camouflage,
Pantytec,
Wire,
U.S. Maple,
Monks, Monks, Monks, Monks.
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.