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 Tajikistan and from Cairo.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Mark Hollis to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Doors. All the underground hits.
All Agent Orange tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fatback Band,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Von Mondo,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Young Rascals,
Inner City,
Fear,
Godley & Creme,
Newcleus,
Boz Scaggs,
ABC,
Blake Baxter,
The Walker Brothers,
The Modern Lovers,
The Shadows of Knight,
Warsaw,
Dorothy Ashby,
Nirvana,
Basic Channel,
Mission of Burma,
Pierre Henry,
Terry Callier,
Index,
Cameo,
Letta Mbulu,
Swell Maps,
Ituana,
Matthew Bourne,
Cluster,
Livin' Joy,
Jacob Miller,
The Black Dice,
Simply Red,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sparks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sugar Minott,
The Real Kids,
Public Image Ltd.,
Marc Almond,
Deepchord,
Scott Walker,
Main Source,
Avey Tare,
John Coltrane,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Moody Blues,
Second Layer,
Essential Logic,
Agitation Free,
Unwound,
Aural Exciters,
Judy Mowatt,
Roy Ayers,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
E-Dancer,
Drexciya,
The Gun Club,
Interpol,
The Flesh Eaters,
Amon Düül,
Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, Ronan.
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.