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 Belize and from Lyon.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Beijing.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Gil Scott Heron to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Neil Young. All the underground hits.
All Sparks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Skatalites record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gastr Del Sol record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Japan,
Juan Atkins,
Susan Cadogan,
The Grass Roots,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Q65,
Roxy Music,
Magazine,
Rosa Yemen,
Pantytec,
Jandek,
Royal Trux,
China Crisis,
Ludus,
The Golliwogs,
X-102,
Moebius,
Robert Görl,
The New Christs,
Ohio Players,
The Alarm Clocks,
Leonard Cohen,
The Techniques,
EPMD,
Hoover,
The American Breed,
Excepter,
Donald Byrd,
Hot Snakes,
T.S.O.L.,
the Slits,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Max Romeo,
Rekid,
Buzzcocks,
the Germs,
Ituana,
Sällskapet,
The Slits,
Altered Images,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
In Retrospect,
Jawbox,
Warsaw,
Bad Manners,
Kerri Chandler,
the Bar-Kays,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Q and Not U,
Index,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Stereo Dub,
The J.B.'s,
The Gun Club,
Marvin Gaye,
Cal Tjader,
The Doobie Brothers,
Half Japanese,
Unwound,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Peter & Gordon,
Terrestrial Tones,
Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant.
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.