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 Korea South and from Winnipeg.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Godley & Creme to the electroclash 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 a-ha. All the underground hits.
All Alphaville tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eurythmics 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultra Naté record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
Soft Cell,
Alphaville,
Lou Christie,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Moody Blues,
The Blues Magoos,
Scott Walker,
Television Personalities,
Bush Tetras,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Adolescents,
Neil Young,
Thompson Twins,
Archie Shepp,
ABC,
Blake Baxter,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Goldenarms,
Eddi Front,
Neu!,
the Normal,
Andrew Hill,
Unrelated Segments,
Excepter,
Hot Snakes,
Cluster,
Alice Coltrane,
Heaven 17,
Joe Smooth,
Lungfish,
Black Moon,
Subhumans,
Buzzcocks,
Nick Fraelich,
The Fire Engines,
Todd Rundgren,
Index,
Lightning Bolt,
T. Rex,
Danielle Patucci,
The Black Dice,
Rod Modell,
the Human League,
Arcadia,
Motorama,
Aloha Tigers,
Funky Four + One,
Roger Hodgson,
Outsiders,
Gang of Four,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Can,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Cramps,
Rhythm & Sound,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Evens,
Ronnie Foster,
Warren Ellis,
Crooked Eye,
the Slits,
Parry Music,
The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers.
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.