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 Papua New Guinea and from Madrid.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Jesper Dahlback to the grunge 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 Ten City. All the underground hits.
All Mo-Dettes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Freddie Wadling 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a PIL record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Warsaw,
Arab on Radar,
The Fall,
Big Daddy Kane,
Henry Cow,
Fad Gadget,
The J.B.'s,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Terrestrial Tones,
Slick Rick,
Average White Band,
Idris Muhammad,
David Bowie,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Minutemen,
Hashim,
the Germs,
The Blues Magoos,
Nils Olav,
Eurythmics,
Q65,
Sunsets and Hearts,
DNA,
Sun City Girls,
Soft Machine,
OOIOO,
T.S.O.L.,
the Human League,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Brothers Johnson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bad Manners,
The Blackbyrds,
The Sound,
Avey Tare,
Agitation Free,
The Walker Brothers,
Peter & Gordon,
Rod Modell,
Oneida,
Graham Central Station,
Rites of Spring,
Sällskapet,
Basic Channel,
Radio Birdman,
Faust,
Angry Samoans,
Jacob Miller,
June of 44,
the Sonics,
Main Source,
8 Eyed Spy,
Accadde A,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Associates,
Parry Music,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Roy Ayers,
June Days,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
China Crisis,
Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay.
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.