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 Botswana and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Jakarta.
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 organ 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 Nas to the punk 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 Neil Young & Crazy Horse. All the underground hits.
All Pulsallama tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne 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 snare and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mad Mike record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
a-ha,
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Association,
Harpers Bizarre,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Marmalade,
Alton Ellis,
Desert Stars,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
June of 44,
Maurizio,
Babytalk,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Count Five,
These Immortal Souls,
Rotary Connection,
Sparks,
Joy Division,
Iggy Pop,
Ultravox,
The Doors,
The Tremeloes,
Matthew Halsall,
Aural Exciters,
Kurtis Blow,
Black Sheep,
Subhumans,
Scrapy,
Glenn Branca,
Basic Channel,
Excepter,
Sex Pistols,
Reuben Wilson,
Gang Green,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Gang of Four,
Ice-T,
Blancmange,
Derrick Morgan,
Todd Rundgren,
Surgeon,
The Fuzztones,
AZ,
John Lydon,
Delta 5,
Moss Icon,
Ohio Players,
June Days,
The Real Kids,
KRS-One,
Anthony Braxton,
Eden Ahbez,
Soulsonic Force,
The Gun Club,
Pere Ubu,
The Dave Clark Five,
Barbara Tucker,
The Grass Roots,
Eurythmics,
PIL,
R.M.O.,
Mission of Burma, Mission of Burma, Mission of Burma, Mission of Burma.
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.