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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Althea and Donna to the jazz 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago. All the underground hits.
All FM Einheit tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Foxx 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Drive Like Jehu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin 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?
X-Ray Spex,
Black Sheep,
Alison Limerick,
Monks,
Con Funk Shun,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Mars,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Aural Exciters,
Lightning Bolt,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sonic Youth,
Prince Buster,
Moebius,
Lou Reed,
Frankie Knuckles,
PIL,
John Lydon,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Residents,
The Count Five,
Brand Nubian,
Schoolly D,
Angry Samoans,
Lindisfarne,
Tomorrow,
China Crisis,
Zero Boys,
Quadrant,
Janne Schatter,
The Electric Prunes,
John Holt,
The Real Kids,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Interpol,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Golliwogs,
Mantronix,
Skarface,
Sarah Menescal,
The Stooges,
Jeff Lynne,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Doobie Brothers,
Yellowson,
the Association,
Mad Mike,
Funky Four + One,
Young Marble Giants,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Silicon Teens,
Severed Heads,
the Human League,
Jacob Miller,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Judy Mowatt,
Byron Stingily,
Neil Young,
Barclay James Harvest,
Oppenheimer Analysis, Oppenheimer Analysis, Oppenheimer Analysis, Oppenheimer Analysis.
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.