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 Tuvalu and from Shanghai.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Leonard Cohen to the grunge 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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Fifty Foot Hose tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rosa Yemen 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Germs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
Sight & Sound,
Mad Mike,
The Red Krayola,
Lindisfarne,
Tom Boy,
The Flesh Eaters,
Kurtis Blow,
Leonard Cohen,
Radio Birdman,
MDC,
The Stooges,
David Axelrod,
Cybotron,
Maleditus Sound,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Eric Copeland,
The Happenings,
Desert Stars,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Fugs,
Peter & Gordon,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Human League,
Black Sheep,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The New Christs,
Agent Orange,
Alice Coltrane,
Angry Samoans,
Lebanon Hanover,
ABBA,
Hardrive,
Jerry's Kids,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Laurel Aitken,
PIL,
Easy Going,
Nils Olav,
Camouflage,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
World's Most,
Cymande,
The Wake,
Aswad,
Franke,
New Order,
The Dave Clark Five,
Eric B and Rakim,
Fad Gadget,
Matthew Bourne,
Toni Rubio,
The Zeros,
Duran Duran,
The Blackbyrds,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Flamin' Groovies,
Freddie Wadling,
R.M.O.,
Ten City,
Hot Snakes,
the Association, the Association, the Association, the Association.
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.