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 Portugal 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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 PIL to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Toni Rubio. All the underground hits.
All Unrelated Segments tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dennis Brown record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deepchord,
Q and Not U,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Isaac Hayes,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bush Tetras,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Wake,
Lalo Schifrin,
Darondo,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Scrapy,
Rites of Spring,
The Remains,
Reagan Youth,
Rotary Connection,
Dead Boys,
Amazonics,
Dennis Brown,
Mantronix,
Hot Snakes,
Amon Düül II,
Henry Cow,
Masters at Work,
Swell Maps,
The Move,
Thompson Twins,
Sight & Sound,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Slackers,
Mars,
The American Breed,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Eddi Front,
Dawn Penn,
Groovy Waters,
The New Christs,
Surgeon,
Robert Hood,
Patti Smith,
Bang On A Can,
Minny Pops,
Popol Vuh,
Vainqueur,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sarah Menescal,
Urselle,
Funkadelic,
Malaria!,
Procol Harum,
The Gories,
The Fuzztones,
Public Enemy,
Archie Shepp,
Eurythmics,
Barbara Tucker,
Gang Green,
Warsaw,
The J.B.'s,
Mandrill,
Jesper Dahlback,
Tom Boy,
The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds, The Seeds.
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.