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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Monolake to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Minor Threat. All the underground hits.
All Gichy Dan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Art Ensemble Of Chicago record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Interpol record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Bronski Beat,
The Buckinghams,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Quantec,
Scientists,
Dennis Brown,
U.S. Maple,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Clear Light,
Saccharine Trust,
the Slits,
Moebius,
Buzzcocks,
Bang On A Can,
Bob Dylan,
Marmalade,
The Moleskins,
Can,
Harmonia,
Slave,
The Selecter,
Aural Exciters,
The Blackbyrds,
The Mummies,
Bootsy Collins,
John Foxx,
The Human League,
Andrew Hill,
Jeru the Damaja,
Malaria!,
Oneida,
Piero Umiliani,
Cybotron,
Tres Demented,
John Coltrane,
The Stooges,
Dawn Penn,
Minor Threat,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Smoke,
Cameo,
The Moody Blues,
Minny Pops,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Dave Clark Five,
Second Layer,
the Soft Cell,
Bobby Sherman,
New Order,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Dual Sessions,
Magma,
Black Flag,
KRS-One,
Interpol,
Niagra,
Tropical Tobacco,
Todd Rundgren,
Unrelated Segments,
Eric Copeland,
Underground Resistance,
Ice-T,
The Velvet Underground,
Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep.
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.