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 Iraq and from Taipei.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
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 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 Slave to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Nirvana. All the underground hits.
All Throbbing Gristle tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kool Moe Dee record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Motorama record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ludus,
The Pretty Things,
Television Personalities,
Sam Rivers,
John Lydon,
Zero Boys,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
John Coltrane,
Bizarre Inc.,
Throbbing Gristle,
Neil Young,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Soft Cell,
Mark Hollis,
The Zeros,
Lou Christie,
Sound Behaviour,
Wasted Youth,
The Cure,
cv313,
D'Angelo,
The Monochrome Set,
The Last Poets,
Nils Olav,
The Moleskins,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Surgeon,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Laurel Aitken,
The Stooges,
Babytalk,
Chris & Cosey,
The Knickerbockers,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tubeway Army,
Interpol,
The Happenings,
Roxette,
Jeff Lynne,
Mars,
Funkadelic,
Harmonia,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Seeds,
Mary Jane Girls,
Model 500,
Essential Logic,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Ice-T,
Technova,
The Modern Lovers,
The Standells,
Sparks,
Steve Hackett,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
In Retrospect,
John Foxx,
LL Cool J,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.