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 Libya and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 the Sonics to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Dark Day. All the underground hits.
All Scratch Acid tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Parrish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Y Pants,
The Music Machine,
Hardrive,
Glenn Branca,
Blancmange,
Swell Maps,
Surgeon,
Gil Scott Heron,
Bizarre Inc.,
Crooked Eye,
Alton Ellis,
The Black Dice,
Sound Behaviour,
The Mojo Men,
Mandrill,
B.T. Express,
The Slits,
Sparks,
The Gap Band,
Matthew Halsall,
Pere Ubu,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Sound,
Minnie Riperton,
The Toasters,
Symarip,
David McCallum,
Kayak,
Los Fastidios,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ice-T,
These Immortal Souls,
The Walker Brothers,
The Gladiators,
Colin Newman,
48th St. Collective,
Patti Smith,
John Foxx,
David Axelrod,
Aswad,
Sight & Sound,
Wire,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Todd Rundgren,
the Bar-Kays,
Slave,
Pagans,
The Skatalites,
The Residents,
China Crisis,
Skriet,
Pharoah Sanders,
Boz Scaggs,
New Age Steppers,
Main Source,
Althea and Donna,
Metal Thangz,
Maurizio,
Delta 5,
Glambeats Corp.,
Dark Day,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.