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 Belgium and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 theremin 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 Fatback Band to the crunk 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 Harmonia. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Babytalk 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Average White Band,
Shuggie Otis,
Ken Boothe,
Sarah Menescal,
The Gladiators,
Basic Channel,
Lucky Dragons,
Black Flag,
The Invisible,
Altered Images,
The Fugs,
Intrusion,
Mars,
New Age Steppers,
The Grass Roots,
Ten City,
The Slackers,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Cluster,
Kerri Chandler,
Ice-T,
The Star Department,
the Sonics,
The Mojo Men,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Monks,
Duran Duran,
The Doors,
Visage,
Girls At Our Best!,
Grey Daturas,
The Divine Comedy,
Ultra Naté,
Scratch Acid,
Faraquet,
Y Pants,
The Last Poets,
Donny Hathaway,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sexual Harrassment,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ultimate Spinach,
Terry Callier,
David Bowie,
Dennis Brown,
Sonic Youth,
Juan Atkins,
T.S.O.L.,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Derrick Morgan,
Mission of Burma,
Skarface,
Delon & Dalcan,
Stetsasonic,
Isaac Hayes,
KRS-One,
Schoolly D,
Grauzone,
The Fire Engines,
Bronski Beat,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Rekid,
Simply Red,
Rakim, Rakim, Rakim, Rakim.
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.