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 Tuvalu and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 guitar 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 Bill Near to the disco 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 Visage. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Five Americans 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radio Birdman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Order,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Buckinghams,
Magazine,
The Cramps,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Skatalites,
Tomorrow,
Wolf Eyes,
Infiniti,
DJ Sneak,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Colin Newman,
Skriet,
Sam Rivers,
David Axelrod,
Hoover,
Big Daddy Kane,
Maleditus Sound,
Jeff Lynne,
Intrusion,
New York Dolls,
Max Romeo,
The Music Machine,
Quantec,
Severed Heads,
The Moleskins,
Yusef Lateef,
The Golliwogs,
Mo-Dettes,
Ice-T,
Laurel Aitken,
Soul Sonic Force,
London Community Gospel Choir,
World's Most,
Throbbing Gristle,
Jacob Miller,
Boz Scaggs,
Monks,
The Five Americans,
Rakim,
Charles Mingus,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Hashim,
Glenn Branca,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Index,
Half Japanese,
Mission of Burma,
Negative Approach,
Rufus Thomas,
Soul II Soul,
H. Thieme,
Altered Images,
Erasure,
the Soft Cell,
Vladislav Delay,
Blossom Toes,
The American Breed,
Bootsy Collins,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Scrapy,
The Litter,
Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis.
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.