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 Slovakia and from Hong Kong.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Clear Light. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joey Negro record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rites of Spring record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Steve Hackett,
Drexciya,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Moby Grape,
PIL,
Kurtis Blow,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Aloha Tigers,
Rites of Spring,
Danielle Patucci,
Ken Boothe,
Shuggie Otis,
Crispy Ambulance,
Darondo,
Jandek,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Piero Umiliani,
Nik Kershaw,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Yusef Lateef,
Hasil Adkins,
Arthur Verocai,
Man Parrish,
Ponytail,
Sällskapet,
New Order,
Dennis Brown,
LL Cool J,
Lindisfarne,
Amon Düül,
Pierre Henry,
Ralphi Rosario,
Whodini,
Ituana,
Hot Snakes,
Johnny Clarke,
The Young Rascals,
The Associates,
Wally Richardson,
The Kinks,
Parry Music,
Janne Schatter,
The Stooges,
Crime,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Robert Hood,
Mandrill,
Monolake,
Boredoms,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Minutemen,
Sugar Minott,
Agent Orange,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Mo-Dettes,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Sound,
Barbara Tucker,
Dawn Penn,
Funkadelic,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.
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.