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 Cyprus and from London.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Salvador.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Young Marble Giants to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Mummies. All the underground hits.
All Infiniti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Talk Talk record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Birthday Party,
Eurythmics,
The Martian,
Archie Shepp,
Au Pairs,
Stiv Bators,
Crash Course in Science,
Underground Resistance,
ABBA,
Gil Scott Heron,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Bobby Byrd,
Rhythm & Sound,
Pierre Henry,
Kool Moe Dee,
Anthony Braxton,
Graham Central Station,
Motorama,
Slick Rick,
Pylon,
UT,
Mo-Dettes,
Judy Mowatt,
The Techniques,
The Cramps,
Smog,
Max Romeo,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Motions,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Fania All-Stars,
Youth Brigade,
Steve Hackett,
The Grass Roots,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Tubeway Army,
Funky Four + One,
The Buckinghams,
The Five Americans,
48th St. Collective,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Gap Band,
Matthew Bourne,
Mandrill,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Slits,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Television Personalities,
Malaria!,
T.S.O.L.,
Piero Umiliani,
Khruangbin,
Subhumans,
R.M.O.,
The Associates,
Sugar Minott,
Scan 7,
The United States of America,
Jacques Brel,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Shuggie Otis,
Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now.
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.