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 Swaziland and from Spokane.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
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 The Gladiators to the disco 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 The Gap Band. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a R.M.O. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Jacob Miller,
Duran Duran,
The Gladiators,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
John Cale,
Rapeman,
Suicide,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Young Marble Giants,
Anthony Braxton,
James White and The Blacks,
John Foxx,
Soulsonic Force,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
the Germs,
DNA,
Scrapy,
Scan 7,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Los Fastidios,
Nils Olav,
The Velvet Underground,
The Litter,
Basic Channel,
David Bowie,
Qualms,
Rakim,
The Black Dice,
Sun Ra,
Warren Ellis,
Scott Walker,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Marc Almond,
Sixth Finger,
Chris Corsano,
The Fugs,
The Zeros,
Brothers Johnson,
Harmonia,
Sister Nancy,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Moby Grape,
Barbara Tucker,
Man Parrish,
The Victims,
UT,
Lakeside,
Erykah Badu,
Whodini,
OOIOO,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Organ,
the Slits,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rekid,
The Techniques,
Tim Buckley,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Raincoats,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Carl Craig,
Flipper, Flipper, Flipper, Flipper.
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.