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 Morocco and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 harpsichord 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 EPMD to the grunge 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 Cybotron. All the underground hits.
All Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q and Not U,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Max Romeo,
B.T. Express,
The Mummies,
Kool Moe Dee,
The J.B.'s,
Outsiders,
Johnny Clarke,
The Fire Engines,
Dual Sessions,
The Wake,
The Black Dice,
Johnny Osbourne,
Y Pants,
Vladislav Delay,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
FM Einheit,
Icehouse,
Arthur Verocai,
Agent Orange,
Essential Logic,
Yaz,
Arcadia,
Black Pus,
Television Personalities,
Sly & The Family Stone,
H. Thieme,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Hashim,
Freddie Wadling,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Detroit Cobras,
Funky Four + One,
Minutemen,
Iggy Pop,
The Last Poets,
The Blues Magoos,
Charles Mingus,
Bizarre Inc.,
Severed Heads,
Fela Kuti,
The Gladiators,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Trojans,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gichy Dan,
Eric Copeland,
Sight & Sound,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Piero Umiliani,
Minnie Riperton,
Lou Christie,
Shoche,
Mark Hollis,
Henry Cow,
Nico,
Laurel Aitken,
Barbara Tucker,
Blossom Toes,
Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band.
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.