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 Dominican Republic and from Madrid.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Jeru the Damaja to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Gerry Rafferty. All the underground hits.
All World's Most tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T. Rex 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Piero Umiliani record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spandau Ballet,
Letta Mbulu,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Aloha Tigers,
Ultra Naté,
The Martian,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Angry Samoans,
Niagra,
Scan 7,
Theoretical Girls,
Johnny Osbourne,
Sarah Menescal,
Franke,
Bootsy Collins,
Agitation Free,
Mo-Dettes,
The Fugs,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Gun Club,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Infiniti,
AZ,
The Music Machine,
Kevin Saunderson,
Todd Terry,
The J.B.'s,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Barracudas,
Von Mondo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Scrapy,
Davy DMX,
David Bowie,
Eli Mardock,
Wire,
Inner City,
Sex Pistols,
The Sound,
Country Teasers,
Deadbeat,
Interpol,
Amon Düül II,
Oblivians,
Joyce Sims,
The Dead C,
The Vogues,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Don Cherry,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Donny Hathaway,
Steve Hackett,
James White and The Blacks,
Pantaleimon,
Barrington Levy,
Mars,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Mummies,
Symarip,
Livin' Joy,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Morten Harket, Morten Harket, Morten Harket, Morten Harket.
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.