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 Libya and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 snare 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 The Sonics to the techno 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 Wings. All the underground hits.
All cv313 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultra Naté record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cowsills record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joy Division,
Tubeway Army,
The Moody Blues,
Mantronix,
The Cure,
John Cale,
Pet Shop Boys,
B.T. Express,
Magma,
Stiv Bators,
Duran Duran,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Oneida,
This Heat,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Letta Mbulu,
Archie Shepp,
PIL,
The Fire Engines,
Tim Buckley,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bootsy Collins,
The Monks,
48th St. Collective,
Faust,
Boogie Down Productions,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
X-102,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Brand Nubian,
Sound Behaviour,
Prince Buster,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Robert Wyatt,
Negative Approach,
Traffic Nightmare,
Johnny Clarke,
The Leaves,
Kayak,
Davy DMX,
The Durutti Column,
Malaria!,
Roxy Music,
The United States of America,
Eurythmics,
Colin Newman,
Rapeman,
U.S. Maple,
Warren Ellis,
The Pretty Things,
The Count Five,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Blues Magoos,
Maurizio,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Modern Lovers,
The Music Machine,
Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy.
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.