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 Vietnam and from Lagos.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 spring reverb 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 Echo & the Bunnymen to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Modern Lovers. All the underground hits.
All The Mighty Diamonds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boogie Down Productions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Roy Ayers Ubiquity record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Order,
Kurtis Blow,
Soft Cell,
The Red Krayola,
Black Sheep,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Nick Fraelich,
Alton Ellis,
Robert Hood,
The Happenings,
The Index,
Youth Brigade,
Avey Tare,
Goldenarms,
Technova,
the Human League,
Gabor Szabo,
Crash Course in Science,
Newcleus,
Lebanon Hanover,
Lower 48,
Pharoah Sanders,
Graham Central Station,
Public Image Ltd.,
Black Pus,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Neil Young,
Michelle Simonal,
Bootsy Collins,
Circle Jerks,
Sound Behaviour,
A Flock of Seagulls,
John Lydon,
Stetsasonic,
the Association,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Donny Hathaway,
Moby Grape,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Silicon Teens,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Ralphi Rosario,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Pantytec,
The Blackbyrds,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Wasted Youth,
Barry Ungar,
Black Bananas,
Quando Quango,
Parry Music,
Ultimate Spinach,
DNA,
Suburban Knight,
Charles Mingus,
Eurythmics,
The Moody Blues,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Durutti Column,
Intrusion,
John Foxx,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.