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 Macedonia 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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Q and Not U to the crunk 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 Oneida. All the underground hits.
All Skarface tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a China Crisis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Clear Light,
Stockholm Monsters,
The American Breed,
Grauzone,
The Doobie Brothers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Arcadia,
The Real Kids,
Beasts of Bourbon,
the Slits,
Robert Hood,
Cymande,
Tropical Tobacco,
Subhumans,
Nico,
Ronnie Foster,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Electric Prunes,
Shoche,
Camberwell Now,
Alton Ellis,
Ultra Naté,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Easy Going,
Grandmaster Flash,
K-Klass,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
John Foxx,
Lightning Bolt,
Livin' Joy,
Kaleidoscope,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Dirtbombs,
Little Man,
Outsiders,
Youth Brigade,
Peter and Kerry,
Icehouse,
Dark Day,
Cecil Taylor,
Symarip,
Nirvana,
The Index,
Leonard Cohen,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cybotron,
Basic Channel,
Wire,
Darondo,
Kenny Larkin,
Bush Tetras,
48th St. Collective,
Donald Byrd,
Derrick Morgan,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Graham Central Station,
Harpers Bizarre,
Lakeside,
Joe Finger,
Ituana,
Fad Gadget,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.