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 Kitts & Nevis and from Stockholm.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Glasgow.
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 spring reverb 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 Howard Jones to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Saints. All the underground hits.
All The Tremeloes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultimate Spinach 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Josef K record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joensuu 1685,
Mars,
Amon Düül II,
Marcia Griffiths,
Wasted Youth,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Sonics,
The Victims,
Bobby Byrd,
Alton Ellis,
Warren Ellis,
Andrew Hill,
Leonard Cohen,
Spoonie Gee,
Bluetip,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
R.M.O.,
Sister Nancy,
Skaos,
The Shadows of Knight,
Faraquet,
China Crisis,
The Cramps,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Skatalites,
Crime,
The Standells,
Mary Jane Girls,
Quando Quango,
The Toasters,
Camberwell Now,
John Coltrane,
The Red Krayola,
Freddie Wadling,
Sugar Minott,
Youth Brigade,
Barbara Tucker,
Pagans,
Amazonics,
Excepter,
Mantronix,
Neil Young,
The Fuzztones,
The Gories,
Q65,
The Fire Engines,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Five Americans,
Chrome,
Piero Umiliani,
Sam Rivers,
Severed Heads,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Black Moon,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Public Image Ltd.,
Half Japanese,
Magma,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Peter and Kerry,
The Beau Brummels, The Beau Brummels, The Beau Brummels, The Beau Brummels.
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.