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 Swaziland and from Bremen.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Nils Olav to the funk 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 The Monks. All the underground hits.
All Ronnie Foster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agent Orange record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 clarinet and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Susan Cadogan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q and Not U,
Big Daddy Kane,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
MC5,
The Last Poets,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Television,
Blossom Toes,
Idris Muhammad,
Grandmaster Flash,
Judy Mowatt,
Traffic Nightmare,
Youth Brigade,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Barrington Levy,
Ultravox,
James White and The Blacks,
Johnny Osbourne,
Kaleidoscope,
The Stooges,
Cheater Slicks,
The Skatalites,
Aswad,
Moebius,
Lou Christie,
Jacques Brel,
Scion,
Fugazi,
This Heat,
Dorothy Ashby,
R.M.O.,
Can,
The Names,
Tropical Tobacco,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Modern Lovers,
Arab on Radar,
Model 500,
Zero Boys,
Shuggie Otis,
Piero Umiliani,
PIL,
The Toasters,
Nirvana,
The Knickerbockers,
Ronnie Foster,
Dawn Penn,
Ohio Players,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Techniques,
The Mojo Men,
Avey Tare,
Derrick Morgan,
Carl Craig,
Au Pairs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Symarip,
Goldenarms,
Oneida,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Malaria!,
Soul II Soul,
Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls.
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.