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 Burundi and from Portland.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Minnie Riperton to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Quadrant. All the underground hits.
All The Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wire 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?
Soulsonic Force,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Buzzcocks,
Sixth Finger,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
X-Ray Spex,
Neu!,
Carl Craig,
Fugazi,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
New Order,
Rotary Connection,
Judy Mowatt,
Outsiders,
Gichy Dan,
Wire,
A Certain Ratio,
MC5,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Swans,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Alton Ellis,
Groovy Waters,
Index,
Tommy Roe,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Alarm Clocks,
Visage,
Piero Umiliani,
Mandrill,
The Real Kids,
The Slits,
Basic Channel,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Josef K,
Don Cherry,
Tim Buckley,
Dark Day,
World's Most,
Circle Jerks,
Eddi Front,
Sugar Minott,
Sun City Girls,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Brass Construction,
Black Flag,
Sandy B,
Au Pairs,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Traffic Nightmare,
June Days,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Barry Ungar,
X-102,
Grauzone,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Slackers,
Crime,
Malaria!,
Crooked Eye,
The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators.
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.