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 Bolivia and from Spokane.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Shuggie Otis to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All The Trojans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kayak 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dave Clark Five,
Nik Kershaw,
The Alarm Clocks,
Drexciya,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Shuggie Otis,
Visage,
The Walker Brothers,
Brand Nubian,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Wings,
The Searchers,
Electric Prunes,
Rotary Connection,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
James White and The Blacks,
Lalann,
The Cramps,
The Buckinghams,
The Star Department,
Marine Girls,
Faust,
Ituana,
Letta Mbulu,
Sound Behaviour,
Bootsy Collins,
UT,
Warren Ellis,
Scratch Acid,
E-Dancer,
Roy Ayers,
Slick Rick,
Sparks,
DNA,
The Slackers,
Inner City,
Cheater Slicks,
Skriet,
Basic Channel,
In Retrospect,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
the Association,
Idris Muhammad,
Aural Exciters,
Hot Snakes,
The American Breed,
The Doobie Brothers,
Dave Gahan,
Dual Sessions,
David Bowie,
Fat Boys,
Alice Coltrane,
Massinfluence,
Khruangbin,
John Holt,
Swell Maps,
Crispian St. Peters,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Brass Construction,
Slave,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Mission of Burma,
Terrestrial Tones,
Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman.
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.