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 Jamaica and from Cairo.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Brass Construction to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Tom Boy. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scratch Acid 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Josef K,
Cal Tjader,
Average White Band,
The Blues Magoos,
Blancmange,
The Human League,
The Skatalites,
Lalann,
Subhumans,
Swell Maps,
Wolf Eyes,
Bush Tetras,
the Slits,
David Axelrod,
The Gories,
Letta Mbulu,
Marmalade,
Procol Harum,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Masters at Work,
Eddi Front,
Rotary Connection,
Malaria!,
Nas,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Velvet Underground,
The Saints,
CMW,
Fear,
Bill Wells,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Prince Buster,
Brand Nubian,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Tommy Roe,
Khruangbin,
Gabor Szabo,
AZ,
Joyce Sims,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Cheater Slicks,
Minnie Riperton,
Ultimate Spinach,
Arthur Verocai,
Ice-T,
The Blackbyrds,
Glenn Branca,
Alton Ellis,
Blake Baxter,
Aural Exciters,
Television,
Derrick May,
Cecil Taylor,
Ken Boothe,
Scratch Acid,
Wire,
Jawbox, Jawbox, Jawbox, Jawbox.
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.