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 Jordan and from Johannesburg.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 ABBA to the disco 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 Absolute Body Control. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Red Lorry Yellow Lorry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crime,
Leonard Cohen,
Bush Tetras,
Traffic Nightmare,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Judy Mowatt,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Neon Judgement,
Severed Heads,
Marvin Gaye,
John Lydon,
Eden Ahbez,
The Music Machine,
The J.B.'s,
Hot Snakes,
Mantronix,
The Leaves,
China Crisis,
The Shadows of Knight,
A Certain Ratio,
Mandrill,
Eli Mardock,
The Last Poets,
The Raincoats,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Knickerbockers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Patti Smith,
John Coltrane,
Organ,
Blancmange,
Joe Smooth,
Harpers Bizarre,
Con Funk Shun,
Davy DMX,
Magazine,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Eric Dolphy,
Kaleidoscope,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Blues Magoos,
Young Marble Giants,
Joensuu 1685,
Mark Hollis,
Amazonics,
Ohio Players,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
ABC,
The Five Americans,
Minutemen,
T. Rex,
Funky Four + One,
Easy Going,
Hoover,
The Gories,
Tropical Tobacco,
Faust,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
David McCallum,
Qualms,
Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bang on a Can All-Stars.
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.