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 Haiti and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 arpeggiator 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 MDC to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mad Mike record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
DJ Style,
The Fugs,
Organ,
Suicide,
Laurel Aitken,
Technova,
Camouflage,
Eric B and Rakim,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Marine Girls,
the Slits,
Warren Ellis,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Peter & Gordon,
David McCallum,
Unwound,
Alton Ellis,
The Knickerbockers,
The Martian,
The Velvet Underground,
Nik Kershaw,
Mr. Review,
Wolf Eyes,
Sonny Sharrock,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Subhumans,
Ossler,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Yellowson,
Terry Callier,
Lower 48,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Danielle Patucci,
Minutemen,
Swell Maps,
Robert Wyatt,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Echospace,
Kool Moe Dee,
Flash Fearless,
Rosa Yemen,
The Electric Prunes,
Motorama,
Black Moon,
Metal Thangz,
Bob Dylan,
The Standells,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Joe Finger,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
B.T. Express,
the Fania All-Stars,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Radio Birdman,
Severed Heads,
Reagan Youth,
Dorothy Ashby,
Andrew Hill,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.