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 Finland and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Flesh Eaters 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 Motorama. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Techniques 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ajijia Myrayebe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-Ray Spex,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Y Pants,
Altered Images,
Michelle Simonal,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Joy Division,
X-101,
Liliput,
JFA,
The Alarm Clocks,
Roxy Music,
Crash Course in Science,
Cluster,
Johnny Clarke,
Stetsasonic,
The Beau Brummels,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Massinfluence,
Barbara Tucker,
Surgeon,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Buzzcocks,
Quadrant,
Mission of Burma,
Cymande,
The Skatalites,
L. Decosne,
The Durutti Column,
Circle Jerks,
The Star Department,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Victims,
The Wake,
Blake Baxter,
Patti Smith,
Monks,
Bootsy Collins,
Don Cherry,
X-102,
Mandrill,
The Young Rascals,
Harpers Bizarre,
Peter and Kerry,
Lalann,
Second Layer,
Moby Grape,
FM Einheit,
Zero Boys,
Tubeway Army,
Sandy B,
Alphaville,
Johnny Osbourne,
Tropical Tobacco,
Bush Tetras,
Flipper,
The Cure,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.