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 Somalia and from Tehran.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 guitar 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 Letta Mbulu to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Wire. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faust record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yellowson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aloha Tigers,
Wasted Youth,
D'Angelo,
Kayak,
Ultravox,
Inner City,
Cecil Taylor,
Soul Sonic Force,
Traffic Nightmare,
Animal Collective,
Delta 5,
Alison Limerick,
Jeru the Damaja,
Index,
Surgeon,
La Düsseldorf,
Black Sheep,
Mandrill,
Gregory Isaacs,
Curtis Mayfield,
Crispian St. Peters,
Grandmaster Flash,
Young Marble Giants,
Lee Hazlewood,
Cymande,
Boogie Down Productions,
Bobbi Humphrey,
New York Dolls,
Spoonie Gee,
Au Pairs,
Stiv Bators,
Essential Logic,
Cybotron,
Rites of Spring,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Judy Mowatt,
U.S. Maple,
Bobby Sherman,
Stereo Dub,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Y Pants,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Patti Smith,
The Monks,
Moby Grape,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Wake,
The Toasters,
Laurel Aitken,
Gichy Dan,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Mad Mike,
The Grass Roots,
The Smoke,
Ornette Coleman,
Q and Not U,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Soulsonic Force,
Sex Pistols,
The Offenders,
Country Teasers, Country Teasers, Country Teasers, Country Teasers.
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.