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 Netherlands and from Woodstock.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Bologna.
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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Byron Stingily to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 DJ Style. All the underground hits.
All Howard Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cowsills 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Negative Approach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fatback Band,
Mad Mike,
Juan Atkins,
Zero Boys,
Eric Dolphy,
Gabor Szabo,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Music Machine,
A Certain Ratio,
Gang Green,
the Sonics,
Albert Ayler,
Faust,
Outsiders,
Morten Harket,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Electric Prunes,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Don Cherry,
Joy Division,
Thompson Twins,
KRS-One,
Barclay James Harvest,
Donny Hathaway,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Skatalites,
Magma,
The Offenders,
The Gap Band,
Lee Hazlewood,
Icehouse,
Yusef Lateef,
Guru Guru,
Eric Copeland,
Nation of Ulysses,
Tommy Roe,
K-Klass,
Dawn Penn,
Joe Finger,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Cowsills,
Soft Cell,
Fear,
Nirvana,
The Names,
Skaos,
Minor Threat,
Rites of Spring,
X-Ray Spex,
Anthony Braxton,
Kerri Chandler,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Buzzcocks,
Leonard Cohen,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Nick Fraelich,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Evens,
Sonny Sharrock,
Peter & Gordon,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.