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 Fiji and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Bremen.
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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Rakim to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Fat Boys. All the underground hits.
All The Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every cv313 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a mellotron and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flamin' Groovies,
The Smiths,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Japan,
The Selecter,
Qualms,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Max Romeo,
Jerry's Kids,
Erasure,
Nik Kershaw,
T. Rex,
Bad Manners,
Organ,
Bill Wells,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rakim,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Ultimate Spinach,
Freddie Wadling,
Thompson Twins,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Alton Ellis,
Todd Rundgren,
The Knickerbockers,
Boogie Down Productions,
Quando Quango,
Echospace,
The Move,
A Certain Ratio,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Underground Resistance,
Funky Four + One,
The Skatalites,
Cymande,
Cluster,
Clear Light,
Royal Trux,
Country Teasers,
The American Breed,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Reagan Youth,
Susan Cadogan,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Last Poets,
Blossom Toes,
Dual Sessions,
Roxette,
Trumans Water,
Faraquet,
Crispian St. Peters,
Harmonia,
Aaron Thompson,
The Moleskins,
Wire,
The Flesh Eaters,
Tropical Tobacco,
Drexciya,
Joe Finger,
Jeff Lynne,
Matthew Bourne,
Tubeway Army,
Marmalade,
The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set.
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.