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 Finland and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Radiopuhelimet to the grime 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 Germs. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Machine record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hasil Adkins,
Roxette,
Nas,
Alphaville,
X-102,
The Velvet Underground,
The Vogues,
The Monks,
Arab on Radar,
Deakin,
Siglo XX,
Jandek,
Los Fastidios,
Trumans Water,
Liliput,
The Slackers,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Alice Coltrane,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Pretty Things,
Niagra,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
K-Klass,
Visage,
Young Marble Giants,
B.T. Express,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sister Nancy,
Reagan Youth,
The Smoke,
Joensuu 1685,
John Lydon,
Freddie Wadling,
EPMD,
Drive Like Jehu,
Tubeway Army,
Loose Ends,
Stiv Bators,
Arcadia,
Thompson Twins,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Mandrill,
Donald Byrd,
Jerry's Kids,
Joe Smooth,
Johnny Osbourne,
Magazine,
Fluxion,
Joy Division,
Excepter,
Lower 48,
Flash Fearless,
Junior Murvin,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The American Breed,
The Durutti Column,
Barbara Tucker,
Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti.
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.