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 the UAE and from Jakarta.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 theremin 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 Scrapy to the rap 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 Sällskapet. All the underground hits.
All Aswad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Normal 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lalo Schifrin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-101,
Gang of Four,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Gap Band,
Grauzone,
The Black Dice,
Idris Muhammad,
Eddi Front,
John Lydon,
The Tremeloes,
Byron Stingily,
Jawbox,
The Pretty Things,
Tubeway Army,
Amazonics,
Brass Construction,
Cal Tjader,
The Fall,
Masters at Work,
Crime,
Livin' Joy,
Ponytail,
Todd Terry,
Lindisfarne,
Fela Kuti,
Bobby Sherman,
Severed Heads,
Blake Baxter,
The Fuzztones,
The Gun Club,
Vladislav Delay,
Ohio Players,
Don Cherry,
Quantec,
Funky Four + One,
Public Enemy,
Kenny Larkin,
The Buckinghams,
Pierre Henry,
Sister Nancy,
Pagans,
Johnny Clarke,
Alton Ellis,
L. Decosne,
Wasted Youth,
Boz Scaggs,
Joe Smooth,
Ornette Coleman,
Skarface,
Country Teasers,
Blossom Toes,
Maurizio,
June of 44,
Chris & Cosey,
Minnie Riperton,
Harmonia,
R.M.O.,
Buzzcocks,
Matthew Halsall,
David Bowie,
Todd Rundgren,
Malaria!,
Girls At Our Best!,
Desert Stars,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.