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 Rwanda 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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 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 Electric Prunes to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Donald Byrd tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flamin' Groovies 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 a sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brothers Johnson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barbara Tucker,
The Skatalites,
Jesper Dahlback,
PIL,
Rotary Connection,
Moby Grape,
Minutemen,
DJ Style,
The Wake,
Swans,
The United States of America,
The Beau Brummels,
Ornette Coleman,
the Slits,
Ice-T,
Slick Rick,
Barclay James Harvest,
Pharoah Sanders,
R.M.O.,
Danielle Patucci,
Idris Muhammad,
Grandmaster Flash,
Amazonics,
Dawn Penn,
This Heat,
Shuggie Otis,
Isaac Hayes,
Eve St. Jones,
Scott Walker,
The Searchers,
Con Funk Shun,
Toni Rubio,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Absolute Body Control,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Cure,
Clear Light,
Can,
Alphaville,
Dave Gahan,
Marcia Griffiths,
Bang On A Can,
Negative Approach,
Von Mondo,
Kayak,
Laurel Aitken,
In Retrospect,
Y Pants,
Eden Ahbez,
The Real Kids,
Drexciya,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Lou Reed,
Unrelated Segments,
The Leaves,
Altered Images,
Lindisfarne,
Lungfish,
Gil Scott Heron,
Soul II Soul,
Pulsallama,
Alton Ellis,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.