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 Belgium and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 Lagos 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Massinfluence. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Funky Four + One record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Busters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mission of Burma,
Groovy Waters,
Soul Sonic Force,
X-Ray Spex,
Procol Harum,
Altered Images,
World's Most,
Todd Terry,
Electric Prunes,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Wake,
Hashim,
Tom Boy,
The Evens,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Martian,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Blackbyrds,
Camouflage,
Althea and Donna,
The Cure,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Inner City,
The Velvet Underground,
Charles Mingus,
The Durutti Column,
New York Dolls,
The Mojo Men,
Black Flag,
Curtis Mayfield,
Derrick May,
Gong,
Wasted Youth,
Gang Green,
Parry Music,
The Black Dice,
Joey Negro,
Chris Corsano,
Anakelly,
Suicide,
Loose Ends,
Reuben Wilson,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Cymande,
Warsaw,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Howard Jones,
Amon Düül II,
Mark Hollis,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Alice Coltrane,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Y Pants,
Porter Ricks,
Matthew Bourne,
Traffic Nightmare,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.