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 Guatemala and from Mexico City.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Junior Murvin to the rap 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 Faust. All the underground hits.
All Liliput tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers Ubiquity 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Star Department,
Flash Fearless,
Bobby Byrd,
Robert Görl,
Boz Scaggs,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Wings,
Ultravox,
John Coltrane,
Subhumans,
Cecil Taylor,
Kerri Chandler,
Roger Hodgson,
Stiv Bators,
Godley & Creme,
Joe Smooth,
Second Layer,
Shuggie Otis,
Technova,
Alice Coltrane,
Sonny Sharrock,
FM Einheit,
Rites of Spring,
Massinfluence,
Wasted Youth,
Trumans Water,
Dead Boys,
The Sonics,
Fatback Band,
Marc Almond,
World's Most,
Charles Mingus,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
ABC,
Liliput,
New Order,
Bronski Beat,
the Association,
Hashim,
Dawn Penn,
Desert Stars,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Ice-T,
The Gladiators,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Niagra,
Boogie Down Productions,
Terrestrial Tones,
Pet Shop Boys,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Real Kids,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sun Ra,
Reuben Wilson,
Jandek,
the Bar-Kays,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Girls At Our Best!,
Thee Headcoats,
Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus.
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.