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 Iraq and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 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 Jacques Brel to the electroclash 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 A Certain Ratio. All the underground hits.
All The Zeros tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nico record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gary Puckett & The Union Gap record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
Althea and Donna,
Rhythm & Sound,
Minnie Riperton,
Idris Muhammad,
Stetsasonic,
Gang Gang Dance,
Inner City,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Dave Clark Five,
Danielle Patucci,
Sixth Finger,
Gregory Isaacs,
Robert Wyatt,
Eddi Front,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Warren Ellis,
Ossler,
Pharoah Sanders,
the Bar-Kays,
The Saints,
Zapp,
Avey Tare,
Pylon,
Tubeway Army,
The Grass Roots,
Radiopuhelimet,
Nation of Ulysses,
Harpers Bizarre,
Janne Schatter,
Stockholm Monsters,
ABBA,
Boogie Down Productions,
Faust,
Jeff Lynne,
Animal Collective,
Q and Not U,
Albert Ayler,
Yazoo,
Prince Buster,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Gichy Dan,
The Angels of Light,
Drexciya,
Amon Düül II,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Nirvana,
UT,
John Lydon,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Fuzztones,
Index,
The Cramps,
Tim Buckley,
The Searchers,
The Skatalites,
These Immortal Souls,
Sexual Harrassment,
Eden Ahbez,
Boz Scaggs,
John Foxx,
Max Romeo,
Soft Machine,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.