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 Romania and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Archie Shepp to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Glenn Branca. All the underground hits.
All Grey Daturas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sixth Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hasil Adkins,
Henry Cow,
The Last Poets,
Severed Heads,
Girls At Our Best!,
Rosa Yemen,
Ronnie Foster,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Terrestrial Tones,
Dennis Brown,
Aural Exciters,
Isaac Hayes,
Nick Fraelich,
Jesper Dahlback,
David McCallum,
Urselle,
Dorothy Ashby,
Mark Hollis,
Judy Mowatt,
Soulsonic Force,
Vladislav Delay,
Juan Atkins,
The Searchers,
Clear Light,
Radio Birdman,
Yaz,
Kaleidoscope,
Joyce Sims,
Basic Channel,
Nirvana,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bush Tetras,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Zeros,
T.S.O.L.,
Fatback Band,
Rotary Connection,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Vainqueur,
The Raincoats,
Ossler,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Hashim,
L. Decosne,
the Human League,
Technova,
Joey Negro,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Inner City,
Zero Boys,
Bronski Beat,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Swans,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Evens,
The Mummies,
The Fall,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Brand Nubian,
Roxy Music,
Patti Smith,
Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army.
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.