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 Belarus and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Whodini to the grunge 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 Dawn Penn. All the underground hits.
All Marcia Griffiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Reuben Wilson 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harmonia record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Lou Reed,
Jeff Lynne,
Bauhaus,
Schoolly D,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Visage,
FM Einheit,
Gang Gang Dance,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
A Certain Ratio,
Sound Behaviour,
In Retrospect,
Charles Mingus,
Kas Product,
James White and The Blacks,
Moebius,
Public Enemy,
Kayak,
The Divine Comedy,
Pierre Henry,
The J.B.'s,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Busters,
Minny Pops,
Buzzcocks,
Camberwell Now,
Half Japanese,
Marshall Jefferson,
Erasure,
The Victims,
Soul II Soul,
D'Angelo,
Oblivians,
Bill Wells,
The Invisible,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Wally Richardson,
Lakeside,
Vainqueur,
Dennis Brown,
Tom Boy,
Bootsy Collins,
Supertramp,
Aural Exciters,
Mandrill,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Standells,
Be Bop Deluxe,
EPMD,
The Cowsills,
Funky Four + One,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Rekid,
Dawn Penn,
CMW,
Pole,
Fad Gadget,
Scientists,
JFA,
Delta 5,
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.