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 Mali and from Mumbai.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Shanghai.
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 organ 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 Archie Shepp to the rock 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 Scion. All the underground hits.
All Procol Harum tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sex Pistols,
Parry Music,
Soft Machine,
Average White Band,
Shoche,
The Stooges,
The Grass Roots,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Monochrome Set,
The Happenings,
Lindisfarne,
Gang of Four,
the Soft Cell,
Yusef Lateef,
Nas,
Joe Smooth,
Lou Reed,
The New Christs,
DNA,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Marc Almond,
Country Joe & The Fish,
the Slits,
Flash Fearless,
Robert Wyatt,
Brand Nubian,
Quadrant,
Essential Logic,
Deepchord,
The Gap Band,
Chris & Cosey,
Youth Brigade,
Aural Exciters,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Mad Mike,
The Busters,
The United States of America,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Carl Craig,
Eric B and Rakim,
Vainqueur,
Index,
Liliput,
Procol Harum,
The Buckinghams,
Pussy Galore,
The Monks,
Panda Bear,
Fatback Band,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Music Machine,
Au Pairs,
The Dave Clark Five,
Monolake,
Vladislav Delay,
Leonard Cohen,
The Techniques,
The Human League,
Soft Cell,
ABC,
Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster.
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.