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 Vanuatu and from Portland.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Hong Kong.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Mary Jane Girls to the techno 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 Ultra Naté. All the underground hits.
All Ken Boothe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Robert Wyatt,
Newcleus,
Agent Orange,
Black Pus,
Nils Olav,
Crime,
the Germs,
The Last Poets,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Nik Kershaw,
Ultravox,
Sandy B,
Tres Demented,
Banda Bassotti,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Isaac Hayes,
Mo-Dettes,
Pantytec,
JFA,
Black Bananas,
Gang Green,
David Axelrod,
Chrome,
Half Japanese,
Maleditus Sound,
Ultra Naté,
Dead Boys,
Mary Jane Girls,
Joe Smooth,
Nick Fraelich,
Urselle,
Idris Muhammad,
Essential Logic,
Warren Ellis,
Dual Sessions,
Wasted Youth,
Man Parrish,
Sight & Sound,
Siglo XX,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Liliput,
Hoover,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Toasters,
Swell Maps,
The Barracudas,
Blancmange,
Ossler,
Reuben Wilson,
Angry Samoans,
Organ,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ken Boothe,
Dark Day,
Aaron Thompson,
Alphaville,
K-Klass,
The Gories,
The Detroit Cobras,
Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion.
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.