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 Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 David Bowie 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 Magazine to the punk 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 Brand Nubian. All the underground hits.
All Charles Mingus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Supertramp 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
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 Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bluetip,
Reuben Wilson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Alice Coltrane,
Talk Talk,
Al Stewart,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Dave Clark Five,
Whodini,
Theoretical Girls,
Scion,
The Happenings,
Oneida,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fat Boys,
The Leaves,
Agitation Free,
Depeche Mode,
Black Pus,
Derrick May,
John Lydon,
Maleditus Sound,
Idris Muhammad,
Cameo,
Motorama,
Easy Going,
Cluster,
Shuggie Otis,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Radiohead,
Barclay James Harvest,
Eddi Front,
Lightning Bolt,
Piero Umiliani,
The J.B.'s,
Eurythmics,
Electric Prunes,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Gong,
The Gladiators,
Leonard Cohen,
The Evens,
Scrapy,
Malaria!,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Bootsy Collins,
The United States of America,
Pole,
Intrusion,
The Selecter,
Mad Mike,
Ludus,
The Beau Brummels,
The Grass Roots,
Au Pairs,
Jeff Mills,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
X-Ray Spex,
Adolescents,
The Martian,
the Bar-Kays,
Alton Ellis,
Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat.
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.