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 Tajikistan and from Woodstock.
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 Philadelphia and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 oboe 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 Cabaret Voltaire to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Robert Wyatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a It's A Beautiful Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crime,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Electric Prunes,
Fatback Band,
Lebanon Hanover,
Neu!,
Sarah Menescal,
Tommy Roe,
Black Sheep,
MC5,
The Cowsills,
John Cale,
Parry Music,
Saccharine Trust,
DJ Style,
Theoretical Girls,
Blossom Toes,
Rekid,
New York Dolls,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Lakeside,
Jerry's Kids,
Grey Daturas,
T.S.O.L.,
Scientists,
Infiniti,
the Swans,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Das Ding,
Deepchord,
The Alarm Clocks,
Heaven 17,
Sam Rivers,
Lyres,
Steve Hackett,
Maleditus Sound,
Whodini,
Kevin Saunderson,
Unwound,
Scott Walker,
Boz Scaggs,
Chrome,
Eden Ahbez,
the Germs,
Sex Pistols,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Slave,
Avey Tare,
Marshall Jefferson,
Wally Richardson,
Y Pants,
James White and The Blacks,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Von Mondo,
Masters at Work,
The Happenings,
The Invisible,
Little Man,
The Beau Brummels,
The Flesh Eaters,
Half Japanese,
Sonny Sharrock,
Delon & Dalcan,
Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis.
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.