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 Qatar and from Jakarta.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the 808 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 Grandmaster Flash to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Pagans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aaron Thompson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Golliwogs,
Bauhaus,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Porter Ricks,
Echospace,
Crispian St. Peters,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Donald Byrd,
Skarface,
Kas Product,
Albert Ayler,
Tim Buckley,
Sonic Youth,
Theoretical Girls,
Reuben Wilson,
Susan Cadogan,
X-Ray Spex,
Adolescents,
Basic Channel,
Simply Red,
Mary Jane Girls,
Black Sheep,
Mandrill,
Malaria!,
Pierre Henry,
DNA,
The Moody Blues,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Drexciya,
Skaos,
Dorothy Ashby,
MC5,
Vainqueur,
Joyce Sims,
Eric B and Rakim,
Livin' Joy,
Peter & Gordon,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Glenn Branca,
Television Personalities,
Spoonie Gee,
Cymande,
The Gories,
Excepter,
The Tremeloes,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Gun Club,
The Barracudas,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Ludus,
Mark Hollis,
Section 25,
Clear Light,
Wasted Youth,
Rotary Connection,
The Offenders,
X-102,
The Happenings,
Janne Schatter,
Johnny Osbourne,
Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy.
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.