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 Russia and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the 808 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 Bootsy Collins to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Spoonie Gee. All the underground hits.
All Harry Pussy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultravox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Massinfluence record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Birthday Party,
Scion,
Eric Dolphy,
The Fugs,
James White and The Blacks,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Funky Four + One,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sound Behaviour,
Sun City Girls,
Alphaville,
Hardrive,
Masters at Work,
Isaac Hayes,
Siglo XX,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
a-ha,
Eurythmics,
Nation of Ulysses,
Stetsasonic,
The Cure,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
New Age Steppers,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Toasters,
Echospace,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Velvet Underground,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Soft Machine,
Franke,
Amon Düül II,
The Evens,
Gil Scott Heron,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Public Image Ltd.,
The American Breed,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Japan,
Ituana,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The United States of America,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Negative Approach,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Black Bananas,
The Searchers,
Terrestrial Tones,
Colin Newman,
Hasil Adkins,
The Monochrome Set,
The Index,
Glenn Branca,
Eden Ahbez,
Pylon,
Anakelly,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kenny Larkin,
Reuben Wilson,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant.
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.