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 Qatar and from Tehran.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Cramps to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Mission of Burma. All the underground hits.
All Gregory Isaacs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quantec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fifty Foot Hose,
Clear Light,
Index,
Anthony Braxton,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Associates,
DNA,
Niagra,
Joe Smooth,
Tomorrow,
Al Stewart,
Zero Boys,
K-Klass,
The Kinks,
Electric Prunes,
Nation of Ulysses,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
KRS-One,
Symarip,
Infiniti,
Cybotron,
Sister Nancy,
Ultravox,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Fortunes,
Dawn Penn,
Country Teasers,
Zapp,
The Walker Brothers,
Inner City,
Mantronix,
The Cramps,
Deadbeat,
Gabor Szabo,
Lindisfarne,
Sex Pistols,
Camouflage,
Babytalk,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
D'Angelo,
Simply Red,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Angry Samoans,
Heaven 17,
The Leaves,
Charles Mingus,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Freddie Wadling,
Outsiders,
Eve St. Jones,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Bizarre Inc.,
Suburban Knight,
Eric Copeland,
Echospace,
The Fall,
The Martian,
Ultra Naté,
Slave,
Johnny Clarke,
Soft Machine,
Gong,
Terry Callier, Terry Callier, Terry Callier, Terry Callier.
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.