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 Malta and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Deepchord to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Piero Umiliani. All the underground hits.
All Yazoo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Inner City record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lee Hazlewood,
Tres Demented,
Roxette,
Rites of Spring,
Swell Maps,
Johnny Clarke,
John Lydon,
F. McDonald,
Sister Nancy,
The Seeds,
Crispian St. Peters,
Spandau Ballet,
Fad Gadget,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Monochrome Set,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Jawbox,
Parry Music,
Dead Boys,
Shoche,
Rufus Thomas,
Maleditus Sound,
Eric Dolphy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
the Association,
Main Source,
Minnie Riperton,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Dave Clark Five,
Girls At Our Best!,
Wally Richardson,
Arthur Verocai,
the Bar-Kays,
Sun Ra,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
the Germs,
Wire,
Niagra,
The Young Rascals,
Lungfish,
Monks,
Mr. Review,
The Names,
Lindisfarne,
Peter and Kerry,
Joyce Sims,
Slick Rick,
Barclay James Harvest,
Radiohead,
Malaria!,
Mo-Dettes,
Dawn Penn,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Vainqueur,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
James White and The Blacks,
L. Decosne,
Subhumans,
Mission of Burma,
the Swans,
Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage.
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.