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 Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Heaven 17 to the disco kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Arthur Verocai. All the underground hits.
All the Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ten City,
Bronski Beat,
Youth Brigade,
Connie Case,
Malaria!,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Graham Central Station,
Sly & The Family Stone,
PIL,
Ultimate Spinach,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Danielle Patucci,
Hoover,
The Barracudas,
Rites of Spring,
Darondo,
Steve Hackett,
Angry Samoans,
The Mummies,
Robert Wyatt,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Durutti Column,
Fatback Band,
Severed Heads,
Scratch Acid,
James White and The Blacks,
This Heat,
Judy Mowatt,
Donald Byrd,
Whodini,
One Last Wish,
Jandek,
Johnny Osbourne,
Lebanon Hanover,
Kaleidoscope,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Erasure,
The Raincoats,
Monolake,
The Gap Band,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Camberwell Now,
DJ Sneak,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lungfish,
The Velvet Underground,
Big Daddy Kane,
Anthony Braxton,
The Pretty Things,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Cheater Slicks,
Cal Tjader,
Accadde A,
Suicide,
the Swans,
Kas Product,
The Wake,
Eric Dolphy,
Von Mondo,
Moss Icon,
Janne Schatter,
Minny Pops,
Motorama, Motorama, Motorama, Motorama.
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.