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 Congo 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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 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 Unwound to the rock 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 Country Joe & The Fish. All the underground hits.
All The Electric Prunes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Siouxsie and the Banshees record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Tommy Roe,
Trumans Water,
Tres Demented,
Terry Callier,
Boredoms,
The Selecter,
Essential Logic,
The Buckinghams,
Reuben Wilson,
Dead Boys,
Yellowson,
Scientists,
Archie Shepp,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Smiths,
The Associates,
Ossler,
Surgeon,
Moebius,
10cc,
Rekid,
Terrestrial Tones,
Avey Tare,
Lou Christie,
The Seeds,
Agitation Free,
Davy DMX,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
L. Decosne,
Ituana,
Blancmange,
The Raincoats,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Marc Almond,
Albert Ayler,
Ludus,
Lou Reed,
Yazoo,
Charles Mingus,
Half Japanese,
Bush Tetras,
Marmalade,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Angels of Light,
Quando Quango,
Schoolly D,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Eden Ahbez,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
John Foxx,
Cecil Taylor,
The Barracudas,
Soft Cell,
The Last Poets,
Crooked Eye,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Ultravox,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Marine Girls,
CMW,
Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads.
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.