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 Mozambique and from Lagos.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Sam Rivers to the punk 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 Oblivians. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every London Community Gospel Choir 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Halsall,
Boogie Down Productions,
Altered Images,
Ossler,
The Electric Prunes,
The Walker Brothers,
Girls At Our Best!,
Joensuu 1685,
Brand Nubian,
Metal Thangz,
cv313,
Josef K,
Animal Collective,
Country Teasers,
Stockholm Monsters,
Icehouse,
Deadbeat,
Q and Not U,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Tim Buckley,
Pussy Galore,
Scrapy,
Panda Bear,
Ultimate Spinach,
Unwound,
Roxette,
Stiv Bators,
The Doors,
Scientists,
Oneida,
Faraquet,
Pagans,
Reagan Youth,
Basic Channel,
Freddie Wadling,
David Bowie,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Saccharine Trust,
The Fugs,
Colin Newman,
Skarface,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tubeway Army,
Buzzcocks,
Interpol,
Excepter,
Aswad,
Gichy Dan,
The Selecter,
Delta 5,
Rufus Thomas,
Gang of Four,
Little Man,
Half Japanese,
Sex Pistols,
The Wake,
Kurtis Blow,
Carl Craig,
Yellowson,
Sister Nancy,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Victims, The Victims, The Victims, The Victims.
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.