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 Costa Rica and from Glasgow.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Rotary Connection to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Model 500. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Görl 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tropical Tobacco record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Arab on Radar,
Ituana,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Modern Lovers,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Saints,
Pussy Galore,
Girls At Our Best!,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Pole,
Ken Boothe,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Electric Prunes,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Goldenarms,
Public Enemy,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Tubeway Army,
Lyres,
Magma,
X-102,
The Standells,
Motorama,
New York Dolls,
Tom Boy,
Y Pants,
Kas Product,
The Red Krayola,
L. Decosne,
Man Parrish,
Suburban Knight,
Absolute Body Control,
The American Breed,
Joey Negro,
Black Flag,
Scion,
A Flock of Seagulls,
the Germs,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lucky Dragons,
Scrapy,
The Offenders,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Liliput,
Monolake,
MDC,
Vladislav Delay,
The Associates,
Black Moon,
The Misunderstood,
Easy Going,
Unwound,
X-Ray Spex,
Lungfish,
The Last Poets,
Neil Young,
the Normal,
Joe Smooth,
Max Romeo, Max Romeo, Max Romeo, Max Romeo.
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.