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 Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
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 Shanghai and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Scrapy to the disco 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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All Delon & Dalcan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stereo Dub 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Livin' Joy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mantronix,
K-Klass,
Curtis Mayfield,
Groovy Waters,
John Coltrane,
Franke,
Black Sheep,
Stereo Dub,
Frankie Knuckles,
Charles Mingus,
Section 25,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Alarm Clocks,
Eli Mardock,
Shoche,
Michelle Simonal,
China Crisis,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Kinks,
Organ,
Con Funk Shun,
Warsaw,
Fat Boys,
Lou Reed,
Marcia Griffiths,
Swell Maps,
Royal Trux,
Ice-T,
Soul II Soul,
The Slackers,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Busters,
Soft Machine,
Howard Jones,
Dawn Penn,
Neil Young,
Juan Atkins,
Fatback Band,
The Raincoats,
The Barracudas,
Piero Umiliani,
Radiopuhelimet,
Public Image Ltd.,
R.M.O.,
Cecil Taylor,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Bauhaus,
Bootsy Collins,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Alphaville,
Gang Gang Dance,
Liliput,
The Grass Roots,
The Misunderstood,
Sex Pistols,
Slick Rick,
The Techniques,
Bobby Byrd,
Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis.
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.