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 Comoros and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Das Ding to the rap 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 Ralphi Rosario. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Velvet Underground record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tim Buckley,
Sonic Youth,
Unwound,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Yellowson,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Average White Band,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Byron Stingily,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bob Dylan,
Lou Reed,
Excepter,
F. McDonald,
Banda Bassotti,
The Saints,
Bill Near,
AZ,
X-Ray Spex,
The Residents,
The Skatalites,
The Gap Band,
Jerry's Kids,
Lower 48,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Slick Rick,
The Doors,
Althea and Donna,
The Kinks,
The Grass Roots,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Todd Rundgren,
The Motions,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Rufus Thomas,
Mary Jane Girls,
Barbara Tucker,
Negative Approach,
Lalo Schifrin,
Drexciya,
Von Mondo,
Talk Talk,
Crispy Ambulance,
Fatback Band,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Main Source,
Masters at Work,
Alton Ellis,
Nation of Ulysses,
Bobby Womack,
Donald Byrd,
The Invisible,
Model 500,
This Heat,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Boz Scaggs,
Second Layer,
Joe Smooth,
The Mojo Men,
The Names, The Names, The Names, The Names.
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.