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 France and from Columbus.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Richard Hell and the Voidoids to the funk 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 Minutemen. All the underground hits.
All Lee Hazlewood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Letta Mbulu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Smiths,
The United States of America,
Peter and Kerry,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Gap Band,
Soft Cell,
10cc,
Jeru the Damaja,
Kenny Larkin,
Talk Talk,
Barbara Tucker,
Idris Muhammad,
Nils Olav,
Joe Smooth,
The Neon Judgement,
a-ha,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Five Americans,
Tres Demented,
Buzzcocks,
Simply Red,
Camberwell Now,
Echospace,
Scratch Acid,
Jawbox,
Quadrant,
Juan Atkins,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Chris Corsano,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Terrestrial Tones,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Hot Snakes,
The Slits,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
This Heat,
Dead Boys,
Althea and Donna,
Ronnie Foster,
Smog,
Robert Hood,
Blossom Toes,
the Normal,
Popol Vuh,
Max Romeo,
Index,
Mandrill,
Organ,
Tubeway Army,
Lou Christie,
Bad Manners,
Easy Going,
David McCallum,
Janne Schatter,
Sun City Girls,
Essential Logic,
Malaria!,
Throbbing Gristle,
Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley.
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.