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 Eritrea and from Copenhagen.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Shanghai.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Fear to the techno 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 KRS-One. All the underground hits.
All Gerry Rafferty tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gastr Del Sol,
X-Ray Spex,
Joy Division,
Crime,
Mary Jane Girls,
Graham Central Station,
David Axelrod,
Crooked Eye,
Mission of Burma,
The J.B.'s,
Tom Boy,
Pulsallama,
Agent Orange,
Organ,
Tomorrow,
Ronnie Foster,
F. McDonald,
Jesper Dahlback,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Can,
Wings,
Echospace,
48th St. Collective,
Barry Ungar,
Eddi Front,
Scrapy,
Fad Gadget,
Vainqueur,
Lindisfarne,
Talk Talk,
Minnie Riperton,
the Association,
Ultra Naté,
Jawbox,
Mantronix,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Cure,
Sugar Minott,
Alphaville,
Eurythmics,
Max Romeo,
Fela Kuti,
Darondo,
Saccharine Trust,
Freddie Wadling,
Youth Brigade,
ABBA,
T. Rex,
Skriet,
Bauhaus,
Stetsasonic,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
DJ Style,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Cheater Slicks,
Nik Kershaw,
The Knickerbockers,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Skarface,
Todd Terry,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Moody Blues,
The Residents,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.