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 Malta and from Cairo.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Manila.
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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Scan 7 to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Bootsy's Rubber Band. All the underground hits.
All Au Pairs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Das Ding 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a It's A Beautiful Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Y Pants,
Joy Division,
Brand Nubian,
Yusef Lateef,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Whodini,
The Fuzztones,
The Velvet Underground,
The Searchers,
The Names,
Average White Band,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Talk Talk,
U.S. Maple,
Sixth Finger,
Roxy Music,
B.T. Express,
Fatback Band,
Tom Boy,
Matthew Halsall,
Smog,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Crime,
Glenn Branca,
Camouflage,
Newcleus,
Bill Wells,
Neu!,
Kas Product,
Mo-Dettes,
Sarah Menescal,
Hot Snakes,
Fear,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Chris & Cosey,
Public Image Ltd.,
Von Mondo,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Wings,
Loose Ends,
Robert Görl,
The Alarm Clocks,
Idris Muhammad,
Barrington Levy,
Darondo,
Black Sheep,
The Slackers,
Electric Prunes,
Scientists,
Moby Grape,
10cc,
Funkadelic,
Erasure,
Dave Gahan,
The Tremeloes,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sandy B,
Robert Wyatt,
The Smiths,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Desert Stars,
Sun Ra,
Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade.
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.