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 Singapore and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Johannesburg.
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 sitar 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Yazoo. All the underground hits.
All John Lydon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Khruangbin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Slick Rick record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
The Sonics,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Janne Schatter,
Albert Ayler,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sarah Menescal,
Drive Like Jehu,
Q and Not U,
The Blackbyrds,
Stockholm Monsters,
Steve Hackett,
Rod Modell,
Fluxion,
Laurel Aitken,
Roy Ayers,
Simply Red,
Gichy Dan,
The Last Poets,
Sister Nancy,
the Soft Cell,
The Leaves,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Divine Comedy,
Tim Buckley,
Lee Hazlewood,
Freddie Wadling,
Yellowson,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Bill Wells,
Pharoah Sanders,
Absolute Body Control,
Rekid,
Henry Cow,
Ludus,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Marvin Gaye,
Arthur Verocai,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Judy Mowatt,
The Dead C,
Motorama,
48th St. Collective,
The Shadows of Knight,
Lalann,
Harpers Bizarre,
Ronnie Foster,
Underground Resistance,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Young Rascals,
Rapeman,
Symarip,
The Zeros,
Bill Near,
Gang of Four,
Michelle Simonal,
The Moleskins,
Monks,
Sound Behaviour,
These Immortal Souls,
The Busters,
Reuben Wilson,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord.
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.