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 Mexico and from Columbus.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the theremin 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 Wings to the funk 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 Eve St. Jones. All the underground hits.
All Country Joe & The Fish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arthur Verocai record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 mellotron and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sparks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
Lou Reed,
Arab on Radar,
The Human League,
Johnny Osbourne,
Bad Manners,
Sarah Menescal,
Theoretical Girls,
The Happenings,
Yazoo,
The Fuzztones,
John Holt,
Ultimate Spinach,
Dawn Penn,
The Remains,
Spoonie Gee,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Alison Limerick,
Magma,
a-ha,
Severed Heads,
Smog,
Pierre Henry,
Marcia Griffiths,
Electric Prunes,
Absolute Body Control,
Funky Four + One,
Lee Hazlewood,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Ituana,
Inner City,
DJ Sneak,
The Victims,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Music Machine,
Pylon,
Faust,
Boogie Down Productions,
Adolescents,
The Monks,
Section 25,
The Durutti Column,
David Axelrod,
Brass Construction,
Aural Exciters,
Von Mondo,
Anthony Braxton,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Public Enemy,
One Last Wish,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Q and Not U,
Johnny Clarke,
PIL,
Deadbeat,
Sonny Sharrock,
Minny Pops,
Gabor Szabo,
The Searchers,
Aloha Tigers,
The Saints,
Black Moon,
Fat Boys, Fat Boys, Fat Boys, Fat Boys.
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.