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 Namibia and from Portland.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Byron Stingily to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 A Certain Ratio. All the underground hits.
All Ken Boothe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Invisible,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang of Four,
Tropical Tobacco,
Arthur Verocai,
Average White Band,
Sun Ra,
Sixth Finger,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Gap Band,
Anthony Braxton,
Susan Cadogan,
The Happenings,
Essential Logic,
Funky Four + One,
H. Thieme,
Kerri Chandler,
The Skatalites,
F. McDonald,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Harmonia,
The Five Americans,
Rufus Thomas,
Tubeway Army,
Dennis Brown,
Marcia Griffiths,
Monolake,
Au Pairs,
The Black Dice,
Joe Smooth,
Pharoah Sanders,
Darondo,
Scrapy,
Gang Green,
Pagans,
Sonic Youth,
The Associates,
Rakim,
Mandrill,
Easy Going,
Danielle Patucci,
John Lydon,
Cymande,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Amon Düül,
Public Image Ltd.,
Blossom Toes,
Severed Heads,
Aloha Tigers,
Audionom,
Tears for Fears,
Janne Schatter,
Nation of Ulysses,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lalann,
Supertramp,
The Victims,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.