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 Albania and from Shanghai.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 synthesizer 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 Rites of Spring to the punk 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 Tres Demented. All the underground hits.
All Lou Christie tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Cell 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 harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tubeway Army,
The Count Five,
Brick,
The Martian,
Suburban Knight,
ABBA,
The Divine Comedy,
48th St. Collective,
8 Eyed Spy,
Sex Pistols,
The Skatalites,
Beasts of Bourbon,
New Age Steppers,
Freddie Wadling,
Joe Smooth,
Joensuu 1685,
Cecil Taylor,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Gladiators,
Boredoms,
Black Pus,
The Velvet Underground,
Monks,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Procol Harum,
Ten City,
OOIOO,
Severed Heads,
Man Parrish,
June of 44,
The Young Rascals,
Pantytec,
Theoretical Girls,
Nik Kershaw,
Harpers Bizarre,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Gories,
Crooked Eye,
Make Up,
Rosa Yemen,
Colin Newman,
Sexual Harrassment,
Adolescents,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Slackers,
David McCallum,
John Foxx,
Dawn Penn,
The Blackbyrds,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Siglo XX,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
T.S.O.L.,
The Residents,
Nils Olav,
the Swans,
Gang Gang Dance,
Yellowson,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Amon Düül,
Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station.
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.