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 Seychelles and from Tokyo.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Detroit Cobras 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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cure record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Techniques record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet 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?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Skatalites,
Tres Demented,
The Move,
Depeche Mode,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Slits,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Lungfish,
Boredoms,
Judy Mowatt,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ludus,
Chrome,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Dead C,
Radio Birdman,
Ituana,
Zero Boys,
Trumans Water,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Tim Buckley,
Morten Harket,
Simply Red,
The Divine Comedy,
Metal Thangz,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
John Coltrane,
Fatback Band,
Marvin Gaye,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Pere Ubu,
the Normal,
a-ha,
Crash Course in Science,
Pylon,
X-Ray Spex,
Amon Düül,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Echospace,
OOIOO,
Eurythmics,
Television,
Peter & Gordon,
The Fire Engines,
Cluster,
Moss Icon,
Amon Düül II,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Brass Construction,
Terrestrial Tones,
LL Cool J,
Dead Boys,
Kaleidoscope,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Eric B and Rakim,
The United States of America, The United States of America, The United States of America, The United States of America.
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.