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 Nauru and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Madrid.
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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Intrusion to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Sight & Sound. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Masters at Work 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a In Retrospect record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ronan,
Todd Terry,
Symarip,
Second Layer,
Josef K,
The Dead C,
Fatback Band,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Techniques,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Oblivians,
Fat Boys,
Andrew Hill,
Davy DMX,
Kas Product,
Laurel Aitken,
Erykah Badu,
Sun City Girls,
The J.B.'s,
Wire,
Joyce Sims,
Animal Collective,
Yellowson,
The Names,
Sun Ra,
Charles Mingus,
Agitation Free,
Eli Mardock,
The Misunderstood,
Boz Scaggs,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Soft Cell,
Tears for Fears,
Moss Icon,
Soul II Soul,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Johnny Osbourne,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Cure,
Con Funk Shun,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Chrome,
Grandmaster Flash,
Goldenarms,
Cecil Taylor,
Ornette Coleman,
48th St. Collective,
Eurythmics,
The Vogues,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Bush Tetras,
Al Stewart,
The Gun Club,
David Bowie,
Pole,
The Sound,
The Buckinghams,
The Last Poets,
Country Teasers,
Flash Fearless,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys.
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.