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 Malta and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Accra.
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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Charles Mingus to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Rekid tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marine Girls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Circle Jerks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Beau Brummels,
the Soft Cell,
Sex Pistols,
K-Klass,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Gichy Dan,
Deakin,
Cybotron,
The Buckinghams,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Brothers Johnson,
E-Dancer,
Electric Light Orchestra,
a-ha,
Nick Fraelich,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Fela Kuti,
Brand Nubian,
Sällskapet,
Kool Moe Dee,
Skarface,
Metal Thangz,
Excepter,
The Gap Band,
Bang On A Can,
Johnny Osbourne,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
New Order,
Eurythmics,
EPMD,
Clear Light,
Moebius,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Barry Ungar,
Kaleidoscope,
Visage,
Au Pairs,
Andrew Hill,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Detroit Cobras,
Marine Girls,
Scan 7,
Laurel Aitken,
The Human League,
Reuben Wilson,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Alton Ellis,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Oneida,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Kas Product,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Eddi Front,
Stiv Bators,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Fugs,
Patti Smith,
Lou Christie,
Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat.
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.