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 Afghanistan and from Hong Kong.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Visage to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Shuggie Otis. All the underground hits.
All Supertramp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cameo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reuben Wilson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lakeside,
Pere Ubu,
Jacques Brel,
The United States of America,
Make Up,
Pole,
Duran Duran,
The Invisible,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
One Last Wish,
Quadrant,
The Electric Prunes,
Brand Nubian,
E-Dancer,
Interpol,
The Zeros,
Liliput,
K-Klass,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
T. Rex,
Circle Jerks,
These Immortal Souls,
Delon & Dalcan,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Bang On A Can,
Rotary Connection,
June of 44,
Janne Schatter,
The Mojo Men,
Bronski Beat,
Crooked Eye,
Piero Umiliani,
Danielle Patucci,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Albert Ayler,
The New Christs,
Gregory Isaacs,
Rapeman,
Drexciya,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Skriet,
Erykah Badu,
Roger Hodgson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
OOIOO,
Intrusion,
Blancmange,
Livin' Joy,
the Germs,
Half Japanese,
Little Man,
Arcadia,
Adolescents,
ABBA,
Can,
Alison Limerick,
Shoche,
Lindisfarne,
Mission of Burma,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.