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 Taiwan and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 guitar 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 Sparks to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Country Teasers. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aaron Thompson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacques Brel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Marshall Jefferson,
Joey Negro,
The Zeros,
Alton Ellis,
B.T. Express,
Eric Dolphy,
X-Ray Spex,
Marine Girls,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Grandmaster Flash,
Bobby Byrd,
Cal Tjader,
The Slits,
Banda Bassotti,
F. McDonald,
Little Man,
Angry Samoans,
Ronnie Foster,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Easy Going,
the Swans,
Country Teasers,
Rakim,
Young Marble Giants,
Liliput,
Henry Cow,
Vainqueur,
Oblivians,
Newcleus,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Warsaw,
Ossler,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Last Poets,
Big Daddy Kane,
Juan Atkins,
Los Fastidios,
K-Klass,
Altered Images,
Bobby Sherman,
Robert Görl,
The Martian,
Jerry's Kids,
Yellowson,
Simply Red,
Anthony Braxton,
Soft Cell,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Brothers Johnson,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Brass Construction,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Scrapy,
Tubeway Army,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Janne Schatter,
10cc,
Jimmy McGriff,
Funkadelic,
Sex Pistols,
Bootsy Collins,
Kayak, Kayak, Kayak, Kayak.
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.