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 Belize and from Johannesburg.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Copenhagen.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Radiopuhelimet to the jazz 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 Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fortunes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Malaria!,
Ludus,
the Soft Cell,
The Dave Clark Five,
Crispy Ambulance,
Excepter,
La Düsseldorf,
Neil Young,
Simply Red,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Brick,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Mummies,
Skriet,
F. McDonald,
R.M.O.,
The Cramps,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Black Bananas,
Grandmaster Flash,
Rosa Yemen,
Joey Negro,
Popol Vuh,
Man Parrish,
The Gories,
B.T. Express,
Saccharine Trust,
The Searchers,
New Order,
Ossler,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Model 500,
Tom Boy,
D'Angelo,
Underground Resistance,
Masters at Work,
Surgeon,
Trumans Water,
Rotary Connection,
Scott Walker,
The American Breed,
Clear Light,
Mandrill,
Lou Christie,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Boredoms,
Anakelly,
Moebius,
Flash Fearless,
Monks,
Chrome,
Blancmange,
Matthew Halsall,
Nick Fraelich,
Eric B and Rakim,
Sparks,
Unrelated Segments,
Oblivians,
The Evens,
Bad Manners, Bad Manners, Bad Manners, Bad Manners.
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.