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 Botswana and from Mumbai.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Ten City to the rap 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 Richard Hell and the Voidoids. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marine Girls 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
Frankie Knuckles,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Blackbyrds,
The Associates,
Maurizio,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
the Fania All-Stars,
Derrick Morgan,
Todd Rundgren,
Quando Quango,
Whodini,
Excepter,
Prince Buster,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Modern Lovers,
Tropical Tobacco,
Cal Tjader,
the Human League,
Danielle Patucci,
Hot Snakes,
Skaos,
Sun City Girls,
Clear Light,
Joy Division,
Q65,
Jandek,
Fad Gadget,
The Cowsills,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Moon,
Scott Walker,
The Shadows of Knight,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ludus,
Franke,
Wolf Eyes,
The New Christs,
Gastr Del Sol,
Kerrie Biddell,
Symarip,
L. Decosne,
Max Romeo,
Peter & Gordon,
Ralphi Rosario,
Bauhaus,
ABBA,
The Music Machine,
Severed Heads,
Rakim,
Monolake,
In Retrospect,
The Young Rascals,
the Association,
Man Eating Sloth,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Gap Band,
Crime,
Moby Grape,
Wire,
Grey Daturas,
Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight.
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.