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 Somalia and from Jakarta.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Eric B and Rakim to the rock 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 Sound Behaviour. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angry Samoans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Detroit Cobras record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cymande,
Nik Kershaw,
Donald Byrd,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Drive Like Jehu,
Magazine,
Kenny Larkin,
Stetsasonic,
Scott Walker,
Nils Olav,
Judy Mowatt,
Roger Hodgson,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Pharoah Sanders,
the Normal,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Rakim,
Bobby Sherman,
Harpers Bizarre,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Isaac Hayes,
Camouflage,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Motions,
the Human League,
Minor Threat,
The Tremeloes,
The Flesh Eaters,
Ossler,
Roxette,
Skriet,
The Golliwogs,
Robert Wyatt,
Tears for Fears,
Drexciya,
Lightning Bolt,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Dennis Brown,
Unrelated Segments,
Max Romeo,
Buzzcocks,
Howard Jones,
The Alarm Clocks,
Q65,
The Cramps,
Deadbeat,
Los Fastidios,
Toni Rubio,
Organ,
Mary Jane Girls,
Erasure,
Monks,
Jacques Brel,
The Modern Lovers,
MC5,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Slits,
The Human League,
One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish.
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.