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 Bhutan and from Tokyo.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Soul Sonic Force 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 Adolescents. All the underground hits.
All John Coltrane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Mills 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Piero Umiliani record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Black Dice,
Sonny Sharrock,
Easy Going,
Lightning Bolt,
Scientists,
The Saints,
The Mummies,
Ohio Players,
Alton Ellis,
Newcleus,
The Shadows of Knight,
Mantronix,
Alphaville,
Vladislav Delay,
Pet Shop Boys,
Byron Stingily,
The Victims,
Deepchord,
the Fania All-Stars,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
A Flock of Seagulls,
Deakin,
The Martian,
Grandmaster Flash,
Swell Maps,
Freddie Wadling,
Accadde A,
Kerri Chandler,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Black Pus,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Rotary Connection,
The Zeros,
Eric Copeland,
The Toasters,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Knickerbockers,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Funkadelic,
Boogie Down Productions,
Laurel Aitken,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Angry Samoans,
Lalo Schifrin,
Anthony Braxton,
Warren Ellis,
Magma,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Von Mondo,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Roy Ayers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Cecil Taylor,
Mandrill,
Danielle Patucci,
Tears for Fears,
The Motions,
Tropical Tobacco,
Surgeon,
Dorothy Ashby,
Black Flag, Black Flag, Black Flag, Black Flag.
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.