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 Sri Lanka and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Franke to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All The American Breed tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Das Ding 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alton Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Roxette,
the Soft Cell,
David Axelrod,
Andrew Hill,
Monks,
Visage,
John Cale,
Procol Harum,
Alton Ellis,
Mark Hollis,
Malaria!,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Masters at Work,
The Searchers,
Q and Not U,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mission of Burma,
Von Mondo,
Connie Case,
The Stooges,
Quando Quango,
The Smoke,
The Beau Brummels,
Tears for Fears,
Animal Collective,
Glenn Branca,
Soft Machine,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Siglo XX,
Eric Dolphy,
Joy Division,
Reuben Wilson,
The Motions,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Matthew Halsall,
New Order,
The Pretty Things,
The Sonics,
David McCallum,
Tres Demented,
Mo-Dettes,
Bush Tetras,
Lucky Dragons,
The Dave Clark Five,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Anakelly,
The Wake,
La Düsseldorf,
Lakeside,
T.S.O.L.,
Youth Brigade,
Rakim,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Martian,
Mars,
Can,
Charles Mingus,
Nik Kershaw,
PIL,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.