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 Laos and from Philadelphia.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Lyon.
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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 The Kinks to the dance 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 Heaven 17. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Television record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cosmic Jokers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lungfish,
Unwound,
Johnny Clarke,
Babytalk,
The Doors,
Eurythmics,
Flamin' Groovies,
Ultra Naté,
Tommy Roe,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Delon & Dalcan,
Thompson Twins,
Brothers Johnson,
Mandrill,
Television Personalities,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Wasted Youth,
The Mojo Men,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Mummies,
Kerri Chandler,
Aloha Tigers,
The Slits,
Model 500,
Gerry Rafferty,
Crime,
DNA,
Jeff Lynne,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Buckinghams,
Outsiders,
Boogie Down Productions,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
U.S. Maple,
Silicon Teens,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Carl Craig,
Kurtis Blow,
Jandek,
X-102,
Sight & Sound,
Symarip,
The Evens,
Bang On A Can,
Idris Muhammad,
Agitation Free,
The Misunderstood,
the Bar-Kays,
Jacques Brel,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Soul II Soul,
Pere Ubu,
Amon Düül II,
Kevin Saunderson,
Erasure,
Fear,
Joe Smooth,
Y Pants,
Roxette,
Bronski Beat,
Big Daddy Kane,
the Normal,
Zapp,
Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective.
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.