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 Senegal and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise 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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 K-Klass to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Max Romeo. All the underground hits.
All Fela Kuti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Alarm Clocks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Germs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rufus Thomas,
The Fuzztones,
Procol Harum,
The Flesh Eaters,
David Axelrod,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Suburban Knight,
Terrestrial Tones,
Tears for Fears,
Q and Not U,
Boogie Down Productions,
U.S. Maple,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Girls At Our Best!,
Pole,
Lee Hazlewood,
Excepter,
Ronan,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Yellowson,
Barbara Tucker,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Camberwell Now,
New York Dolls,
The Golliwogs,
Cheater Slicks,
Oneida,
Mission of Burma,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Slick Rick,
Infiniti,
the Soft Cell,
The Names,
Index,
Tropical Tobacco,
Morten Harket,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Doobie Brothers,
Japan,
Bush Tetras,
Al Stewart,
Matthew Bourne,
Subhumans,
Vladislav Delay,
Kurtis Blow,
Nation of Ulysses,
Thompson Twins,
Gichy Dan,
The Invisible,
Gil Scott Heron,
Joensuu 1685,
Eve St. Jones,
Zapp,
Pet Shop Boys,
Heaven 17,
The Wake,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The New Christs,
Half Japanese,
Monolake,
Kenny Larkin, Kenny Larkin, Kenny Larkin, Kenny Larkin.
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.