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 Jamaica and from Lyon.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare 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 Aural Exciters to the techno kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Banda Bassotti. All the underground hits.
All Model 500 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Buzzcocks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Leonard Cohen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Moss Icon,
Gang Green,
Jacob Miller,
B.T. Express,
New Order,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Rufus Thomas,
Wasted Youth,
CMW,
Yusef Lateef,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Gil Scott Heron,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Flesh Eaters,
Big Daddy Kane,
Alice Coltrane,
Easy Going,
Lightning Bolt,
Lyres,
Ken Boothe,
Bizarre Inc.,
Mars,
Gang of Four,
Black Pus,
Basic Channel,
The Vogues,
Pierre Henry,
Grauzone,
Television Personalities,
Steve Hackett,
MDC,
Marmalade,
Glenn Branca,
Bobby Sherman,
Wally Richardson,
New Age Steppers,
The Birthday Party,
Rosa Yemen,
Connie Case,
Con Funk Shun,
Eric Copeland,
Electric Prunes,
China Crisis,
Symarip,
Au Pairs,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Robert Görl,
Kas Product,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Warren Ellis,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lindisfarne,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Motions,
Black Moon,
The Dirtbombs,
Pulsallama,
X-Ray Spex,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.