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 Portugal and from Shanghai.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Ituana to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Leonard Cohen. All the underground hits.
All Deakin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fugs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Don Cherry,
These Immortal Souls,
Crime,
The Gories,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang Starr,
The Real Kids,
Arab on Radar,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
La Düsseldorf,
New York Dolls,
The Slits,
Agitation Free,
The Neon Judgement,
Matthew Bourne,
Skarface,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
ABC,
The Five Americans,
Marc Almond,
Au Pairs,
Animal Collective,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Jeff Mills,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Swans,
Quando Quango,
Oblivians,
The Fugs,
The Techniques,
the Human League,
Black Sheep,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Model 500,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Japan,
New Age Steppers,
Drive Like Jehu,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Suburban Knight,
Fear,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Sight & Sound,
Sonic Youth,
Donald Byrd,
World's Most,
Zero Boys,
Shoche,
The Pretty Things,
The Blackbyrds,
The Trojans,
Minny Pops,
Minnie Riperton,
The New Christs,
Radiopuhelimet,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Janne Schatter,
Echospace,
The Kinks,
Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike, Mad Mike.
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.