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 Portugal and from Jakarta.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Steve Hackett to the rap 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 Lou Christie. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flipper 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Albert Ayler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q and Not U,
The Doobie Brothers,
Swell Maps,
Grauzone,
Isaac Hayes,
Urselle,
Janne Schatter,
Bush Tetras,
The Electric Prunes,
Mission of Burma,
The Pretty Things,
Fat Boys,
Groovy Waters,
The Barracudas,
Radio Birdman,
The Human League,
Traffic Nightmare,
Lower 48,
Albert Ayler,
Eve St. Jones,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Guru Guru,
Flipper,
The Dave Clark Five,
Dawn Penn,
Brothers Johnson,
Sam Rivers,
Porter Ricks,
Lakeside,
Glambeats Corp.,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Surgeon,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Dark Day,
The Fortunes,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Youth Brigade,
Heaven 17,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Interpol,
Gichy Dan,
Roy Ayers,
The Slits,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Aural Exciters,
Scratch Acid,
Rosa Yemen,
Deepchord,
Popol Vuh,
The Litter,
The Toasters,
The Angels of Light,
Basic Channel,
Little Man,
CMW,
Scion,
New Age Steppers,
Public Image Ltd.,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Depeche Mode,
Robert Hood,
Man Parrish,
Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson.
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.