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 Fiji and from Paris.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 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 Ronnie Foster to the punk 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Bronski Beat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every This Heat record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Neon Judgement record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb 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,
Black Pus,
Niagra,
This Heat,
Hashim,
the Slits,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Yellowson,
Ponytail,
Lightning Bolt,
The Golliwogs,
Tomorrow,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Terrestrial Tones,
John Cale,
Popol Vuh,
Siglo XX,
Harpers Bizarre,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Alphaville,
Suicide,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Smiths,
Yusef Lateef,
The J.B.'s,
the Soft Cell,
Scientists,
Simply Red,
Ken Boothe,
Lindisfarne,
Metal Thangz,
Anakelly,
The Durutti Column,
The Zeros,
Tubeway Army,
Agent Orange,
Gang Gang Dance,
Cal Tjader,
D'Angelo,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
the Association,
Johnny Osbourne,
Stetsasonic,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Sonics,
One Last Wish,
the Swans,
Quando Quango,
Sun Ra,
Lou Reed,
Kaleidoscope,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Saints,
Jerry Gold Smith,
the Sonics,
Wally Richardson,
L. Decosne,
Pantaleimon,
Tres Demented,
ABBA, ABBA, ABBA, ABBA.
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.