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 Peru and from Jakarta.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 arpeggiator 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 Gerry Rafferty to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Cale. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 sitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spoonie Gee record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scrapy,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Lucky Dragons,
David Bowie,
Barrington Levy,
Gastr Del Sol,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sound Behaviour,
Spoonie Gee,
Arthur Verocai,
Bootsy Collins,
Procol Harum,
Mad Mike,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Brothers Johnson,
Rekid,
Barry Ungar,
Groovy Waters,
X-102,
Jeff Lynne,
The Associates,
The Velvet Underground,
DJ Style,
the Bar-Kays,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Throbbing Gristle,
Fugazi,
Nik Kershaw,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Mojo Men,
Cabaret Voltaire,
China Crisis,
Tres Demented,
Camberwell Now,
Make Up,
Y Pants,
Wolf Eyes,
Desert Stars,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Marc Almond,
Patti Smith,
Reagan Youth,
Magma,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Half Japanese,
Aswad,
Sight & Sound,
Glambeats Corp.,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Soul Sonic Force,
Carl Craig,
Johnny Osbourne,
Kerrie Biddell,
Nils Olav,
Brass Construction,
Jandek,
Maleditus Sound,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Knickerbockers,
Piero Umiliani,
Terry Callier,
Barbara Tucker,
Inner City,
The Doobie Brothers,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.