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 Gambia 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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba 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 Henry Cow to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Men They Couldn't Hang. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Swans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Techniques record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Bowie,
Main Source,
Radiohead,
The Raincoats,
Faust,
Camberwell Now,
Model 500,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Absolute Body Control,
The Divine Comedy,
Television Personalities,
The Smoke,
Agitation Free,
Underground Resistance,
Scan 7,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Last Poets,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Franke,
Pulsallama,
the Slits,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Patti Smith,
the Bar-Kays,
Girls At Our Best!,
Gang Starr,
Make Up,
Rufus Thomas,
Dead Boys,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Lightning Bolt,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Dual Sessions,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lalann,
Janne Schatter,
Pharoah Sanders,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Brick,
Joyce Sims,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Rapeman,
the Swans,
Surgeon,
Joy Division,
F. McDonald,
Nation of Ulysses,
Piero Umiliani,
Liliput,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Vainqueur,
Livin' Joy,
Be Bop Deluxe,
June of 44,
Sonny Sharrock,
Lakeside,
Neu!,
Shuggie Otis,
Moss Icon,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren 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.