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 St Lucia and from Copenhagen.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Delhi.
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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Cabaret Voltaire 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 Brothers Johnson. All the underground hits.
All Babytalk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Simply Red record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lalann record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Fugazi,
The Cowsills,
Mary Jane Girls,
Circle Jerks,
Trumans Water,
Schoolly D,
The Black Dice,
Lungfish,
The Names,
Harry Pussy,
ABBA,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Yazoo,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Chris & Cosey,
The Electric Prunes,
Bronski Beat,
Loose Ends,
The Tremeloes,
The Blackbyrds,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cybotron,
Lower 48,
The Buckinghams,
Q and Not U,
Ituana,
Prince Buster,
Pole,
Jeff Lynne,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sparks,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Main Source,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Glambeats Corp.,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Raincoats,
Rites of Spring,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Essential Logic,
The Gap Band,
Lindisfarne,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Urselle,
Al Stewart,
Mark Hollis,
Thompson Twins,
Robert Hood,
Colin Newman,
Funkadelic,
the Swans,
Lalann,
Vladislav Delay,
Public Enemy,
The American Breed,
Rod Modell,
Vainqueur,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling, Freddie Wadling.
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.