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 Angola and from Glasgow.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
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 The Golliwogs to the dance kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Adolescents. All the underground hits.
All The Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Girls At Our Best! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quando Quango,
Dark Day,
Robert Hood,
Sight & Sound,
Niagra,
K-Klass,
The Offenders,
The Grass Roots,
Pere Ubu,
The Associates,
Matthew Bourne,
Warren Ellis,
Sixth Finger,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Thompson Twins,
James White and The Blacks,
Desert Stars,
Rakim,
Wings,
The Smoke,
Kerrie Biddell,
MDC,
Crispian St. Peters,
Country Teasers,
Wolf Eyes,
The Leaves,
Quantec,
Harmonia,
Jacques Brel,
Fela Kuti,
Aural Exciters,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Gerry Rafferty,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Heaven 17,
Swell Maps,
Roy Ayers,
Saccharine Trust,
Kevin Saunderson,
Fluxion,
Con Funk Shun,
U.S. Maple,
Don Cherry,
Eric Dolphy,
The Wake,
The Techniques,
Stiv Bators,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Jacob Miller,
Masters at Work,
Henry Cow,
Todd Terry,
Nas,
UT,
DJ Style,
Icehouse,
Hoover,
CMW,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Kaleidoscope,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Alison Limerick,
Smog, Smog, Smog, Smog.
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.