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 Papua New Guinea and from Edmonton.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 808 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 Josef K to the jazz 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 Animal Collective. All the underground hits.
All Bluetip tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Mojo Men record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Laurel Aitken record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Matthew Halsall,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Half Japanese,
Skriet,
Pet Shop Boys,
Byron Stingily,
Liliput,
The Shadows of Knight,
Sister Nancy,
Masters at Work,
World's Most,
Urselle,
Black Moon,
Young Marble Giants,
Alice Coltrane,
Ash Ra Tempel,
DJ Sneak,
the Swans,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Monks,
Don Cherry,
The Mojo Men,
Easy Going,
Sight & Sound,
Camouflage,
Crispian St. Peters,
Black Bananas,
the Fania All-Stars,
Organ,
Black Pus,
Subhumans,
Andrew Hill,
Buzzcocks,
Barrington Levy,
Maurizio,
China Crisis,
Magma,
The Litter,
Radiopuhelimet,
MDC,
The Count Five,
Blossom Toes,
Nick Fraelich,
Desert Stars,
Cheater Slicks,
Vladislav Delay,
cv313,
Carl Craig,
Cybotron,
The Sonics,
Pantytec,
This Heat,
Sällskapet,
Sex Pistols,
Alton Ellis,
Lebanon Hanover,
L. Decosne,
Country Teasers,
Ituana,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
the Association,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.