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 Lithuania and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Columbus.
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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Lindisfarne to the grunge 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 John Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Faust tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scan 7 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacques Brel,
DJ Style,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Pantaleimon,
Steve Hackett,
Moebius,
Malaria!,
Pet Shop Boys,
Fugazi,
Marshall Jefferson,
Unwound,
Stockholm Monsters,
Fatback Band,
Colin Newman,
The Modern Lovers,
Slick Rick,
Accadde A,
Peter and Kerry,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Johnny Clarke,
June Days,
David McCallum,
Country Teasers,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Curtis Mayfield,
Technova,
Pere Ubu,
Angry Samoans,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Reuben Wilson,
Public Enemy,
Motorama,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Roger Hodgson,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Pulsallama,
Stereo Dub,
Scion,
ABBA,
Cluster,
Drexciya,
Skriet,
Godley & Creme,
Buzzcocks,
Skaos,
Deadbeat,
The Flesh Eaters,
Bobby Womack,
Crooked Eye,
Nas,
Sound Behaviour,
the Swans,
The Walker Brothers,
Harmonia,
Newcleus,
Radio Birdman,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Wings,
Boredoms,
Cecil Taylor,
Ohio Players,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.