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 Austria and from Johannesburg.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the 808 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 X-102 to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Minny Pops. All the underground hits.
All Sad Lovers and Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Traffic Nightmare record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
The Gap Band,
Ultra Naté,
Eden Ahbez,
Hasil Adkins,
Steve Hackett,
Masters at Work,
Ludus,
EPMD,
Jeru the Damaja,
Grey Daturas,
The Trojans,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Kinks,
Lalo Schifrin,
Alison Limerick,
Marmalade,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Derrick May,
Country Joe & The Fish,
R.M.O.,
Freddie Wadling,
Pet Shop Boys,
Gang of Four,
New York Dolls,
Lungfish,
Outsiders,
Byron Stingily,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Mo-Dettes,
Essential Logic,
John Holt,
The Blues Magoos,
Todd Terry,
The Victims,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Scrapy,
Magazine,
The Fall,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Swans,
The Knickerbockers,
Skriet,
Erasure,
Supertramp,
Fela Kuti,
Barclay James Harvest,
Hot Snakes,
Bill Wells,
Althea and Donna,
These Immortal Souls,
The Martian,
Ultravox,
Peter and Kerry,
The Monks,
The Fortunes,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Tremeloes,
Bizarre Inc.,
China Crisis,
Sun City Girls,
Man Eating Sloth,
UT, UT, UT, UT.
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.