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 South Sudan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Black Flag to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Rites of Spring. All the underground hits.
All Circle Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Interpol record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Livin' Joy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sound,
Anthony Braxton,
Chris & Cosey,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Alphaville,
the Association,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Little Man,
Crooked Eye,
Mark Hollis,
Yaz,
Terry Callier,
Japan,
Iggy Pop,
The Last Poets,
Judy Mowatt,
Unwound,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Charles Mingus,
The Angels of Light,
Jandek,
Gang Gang Dance,
Circle Jerks,
Arthur Verocai,
The Five Americans,
Bizarre Inc.,
Piero Umiliani,
Max Romeo,
James White and The Blacks,
Blossom Toes,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Negative Approach,
Warsaw,
H. Thieme,
The Durutti Column,
Hasil Adkins,
Stereo Dub,
The Blues Magoos,
Michelle Simonal,
Boredoms,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Yusef Lateef,
Shuggie Otis,
DJ Style,
FM Einheit,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Cecil Taylor,
Country Teasers,
Amazonics,
Henry Cow,
Sound Behaviour,
Ten City,
China Crisis,
Theoretical Girls,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Donny Hathaway,
Monks,
Quantec,
Isaac Hayes,
Pet Shop Boys,
Eden Ahbez,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.