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 Pakistan and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mars to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Au Pairs. All the underground hits.
All Tubeway Army tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Q65 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Little Man record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Barrington Levy,
Byron Stingily,
Groovy Waters,
The Evens,
Terrestrial Tones,
Gastr Del Sol,
Tom Boy,
The Offenders,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Au Pairs,
OOIOO,
Niagra,
Faust,
Fat Boys,
Camberwell Now,
Leonard Cohen,
Severed Heads,
The Count Five,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Bush Tetras,
Graham Central Station,
Vladislav Delay,
Gang Gang Dance,
Johnny Clarke,
Man Parrish,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Marc Almond,
Lou Reed,
Liliput,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Sight & Sound,
Reuben Wilson,
Underground Resistance,
Judy Mowatt,
John Coltrane,
The Star Department,
Spandau Ballet,
Monolake,
Anthony Braxton,
Qualms,
The New Christs,
Deepchord,
Arab on Radar,
The Last Poets,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Yusef Lateef,
The Monks,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Simply Red,
ABBA,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Urselle,
the Human League,
UT,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Sound,
Laurel Aitken,
Motorama,
Grey Daturas,
Radiopuhelimet, Radiopuhelimet, Radiopuhelimet, Radiopuhelimet.
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.