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 Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Scott Walker + Sunn O))) to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Arab on Radar. All the underground hits.
All the Association tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Susan Cadogan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hashim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Minutemen,
The Cowsills,
Scion,
The Selecter,
Aloha Tigers,
Bill Near,
Livin' Joy,
China Crisis,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Cecil Taylor,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Names,
Matthew Bourne,
Wasted Youth,
Alison Limerick,
The Human League,
Duran Duran,
Bobby Womack,
Gastr Del Sol,
Bobby Byrd,
La Düsseldorf,
Japan,
Todd Terry,
U.S. Maple,
The Offenders,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Walker Brothers,
Suicide,
MDC,
Faust,
Lalo Schifrin,
Y Pants,
UT,
The Count Five,
Excepter,
Mandrill,
Little Man,
Ultimate Spinach,
The United States of America,
Kool Moe Dee,
Simply Red,
The Blues Magoos,
Johnny Clarke,
Slick Rick,
the Human League,
Sandy B,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cymande,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ludus,
Sun City Girls,
Ultra Naté,
Cluster,
Morten Harket,
Yaz,
Reagan Youth,
Colin Newman,
James White and The Blacks,
Bill Wells,
Fela Kuti,
John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon.
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.