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 Togo and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 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 Bad Manners to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Monolake. All the underground hits.
All Rites of Spring tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marcia Griffiths 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rakim,
The Saints,
Echospace,
Guru Guru,
Soft Machine,
The Invisible,
Quando Quango,
The Grass Roots,
Drexciya,
Cymande,
Agent Orange,
The Gun Club,
Anakelly,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Matthew Bourne,
Chris Corsano,
Blake Baxter,
Aural Exciters,
Flash Fearless,
Gang Starr,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Hot Snakes,
Soft Cell,
Dennis Brown,
Essential Logic,
John Cale,
Funky Four + One,
The Pretty Things,
Scrapy,
Unwound,
The Fall,
T. Rex,
Ornette Coleman,
Nils Olav,
Traffic Nightmare,
Pylon,
The Tremeloes,
The Motions,
Big Daddy Kane,
Marine Girls,
Amon Düül,
Joe Finger,
The Selecter,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Tears for Fears,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Goldenarms,
Eve St. Jones,
The Searchers,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Moby Grape,
Tomorrow,
Kevin Saunderson,
X-101,
The Knickerbockers,
Donald Byrd,
Max Romeo,
Eden Ahbez,
Pere Ubu,
Vainqueur,
Stockholm Monsters,
Jacob Miller,
Loose Ends,
Second Layer,
Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff.
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.