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 Comoros and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Bad Manners to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Frankie Knuckles. All the underground hits.
All Justin Hinds & The Dominoes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shoche record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a In Retrospect record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Hood,
Cymande,
K-Klass,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Judy Mowatt,
Mandrill,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Ponytail,
The Moody Blues,
Matthew Bourne,
Lightning Bolt,
Scratch Acid,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Aaron Thompson,
Kaleidoscope,
Brand Nubian,
Sarah Menescal,
B.T. Express,
Country Teasers,
The Pop Group,
Delta 5,
Unwound,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lucky Dragons,
Soft Machine,
Average White Band,
Outsiders,
Basic Channel,
Mission of Burma,
Zapp,
Excepter,
Unrelated Segments,
World's Most,
Shoche,
Negative Approach,
Fugazi,
The Slits,
Mark Hollis,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
This Heat,
Alphaville,
Ludus,
The Victims,
Byron Stingily,
KRS-One,
Franke,
H. Thieme,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Gap Band,
The Slackers,
Ken Boothe,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Barry Ungar,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Fall,
John Coltrane,
Kevin Saunderson,
Crash Course in Science,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed.
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.