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 Venezuela and from Cairo.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Absolute Body Control to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Half Japanese tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a David Axelrod record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Crash Course in Science,
Drexciya,
The Skatalites,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Golliwogs,
Moby Grape,
Sex Pistols,
Stereo Dub,
ABC,
The Mummies,
Minny Pops,
Skarface,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Ohio Players,
Jeff Lynne,
Yaz,
Slave,
Clear Light,
The Vogues,
Scratch Acid,
Panda Bear,
The Divine Comedy,
Brass Construction,
Japan,
Reuben Wilson,
Ultimate Spinach,
Simply Red,
Kas Product,
Dual Sessions,
Jeff Mills,
Johnny Clarke,
Blake Baxter,
Ituana,
X-102,
Lyres,
Alice Coltrane,
X-Ray Spex,
Robert Wyatt,
Vainqueur,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pantytec,
The Monks,
Mary Jane Girls,
London Community Gospel Choir,
FM Einheit,
Minor Threat,
Kenny Larkin,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Colin Newman,
Parry Music,
Royal Trux,
ABBA,
Echospace,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Janne Schatter,
The Tremeloes,
Thompson Twins,
The Fuzztones,
Pole,
Cheater Slicks,
Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu.
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.