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 Azerbaijan and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Boogie Down Productions to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Joe Finger. All the underground hits.
All Brick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABC,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Last Poets,
Visage,
Todd Terry,
The Gun Club,
Scott Walker,
Minor Threat,
Prince Buster,
The Skatalites,
Peter & Gordon,
The Index,
Sixth Finger,
Sight & Sound,
The Gap Band,
Nirvana,
The Real Kids,
Black Flag,
The Misunderstood,
Andrew Hill,
Mars,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Joy Division,
Jandek,
The Music Machine,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sound Behaviour,
Slick Rick,
Joensuu 1685,
Big Daddy Kane,
Simply Red,
Tommy Roe,
The Black Dice,
Ohio Players,
Kool Moe Dee,
Rakim,
The Sonics,
OOIOO,
Television Personalities,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Suburban Knight,
Heaven 17,
Sandy B,
Stetsasonic,
The Walker Brothers,
John Holt,
Amon Düül,
Roxy Music,
Soulsonic Force,
PIL,
In Retrospect,
Reuben Wilson,
Excepter,
Lower 48,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Surgeon,
Moby Grape,
Fear,
Fat Boys,
Motorama,
Vladislav Delay,
Bluetip,
The Monks,
Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt.
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.