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 Jamaica and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 mellotron 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 The Slits to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 This Heat. All the underground hits.
All X-102 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rahsaan Roland Kirk 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Throbbing Gristle record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cabaret Voltaire,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Brass Construction,
Sarah Menescal,
Banda Bassotti,
Dave Gahan,
Con Funk Shun,
Susan Cadogan,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Monochrome Set,
Neu!,
Brothers Johnson,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Kurtis Blow,
Donny Hathaway,
Scott Walker,
Robert Wyatt,
Dead Boys,
Ossler,
Negative Approach,
The Fuzztones,
Rites of Spring,
Minutemen,
Sexual Harrassment,
Minny Pops,
Magazine,
Gang of Four,
Don Cherry,
Delon & Dalcan,
Duran Duran,
Deepchord,
Shoche,
Drive Like Jehu,
Eric Dolphy,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Trumans Water,
Agitation Free,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jandek,
Lungfish,
Agent Orange,
Kevin Saunderson,
Scan 7,
Dennis Brown,
Subhumans,
Country Teasers,
The Remains,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Invisible,
This Heat,
Slave,
Graham Central Station,
The Smoke,
Unrelated Segments,
Sandy B,
Fela Kuti,
Sound Behaviour,
Eurythmics,
Terrestrial Tones,
Robert Hood,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Can,
Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, Sparks.
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.