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 Tuvalu 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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Jakarta.
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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Slackers to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Sun Ra. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bauhaus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Severed Heads record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The American Breed,
Surgeon,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Blossom Toes,
Adolescents,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
LL Cool J,
Gang Starr,
The Remains,
Magazine,
Excepter,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Hoover,
The Selecter,
Idris Muhammad,
The Gun Club,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Moody Blues,
Black Pus,
Chrome,
Alice Coltrane,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
the Swans,
The Mojo Men,
Janne Schatter,
The Happenings,
Andrew Hill,
Average White Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
Moby Grape,
Donny Hathaway,
Bill Near,
Essential Logic,
Bootsy Collins,
Skaos,
KRS-One,
Warren Ellis,
Bush Tetras,
Funkadelic,
Public Enemy,
Marcia Griffiths,
Rakim,
Prince Buster,
Von Mondo,
Kool Moe Dee,
Fugazi,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Patti Smith,
Dead Boys,
Goldenarms,
Funky Four + One,
Erykah Badu,
It's A Beautiful Day,
a-ha,
Aural Exciters,
AZ,
Bob Dylan,
The Birthday Party,
Rites of Spring,
Glenn Branca,
Eden Ahbez,
Oneida, Oneida, Oneida, Oneida.
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.