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 Colombia and from Copenhagen.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Beijing.
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 marimba 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 Groovy Waters to the electroclash 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 Electric Light Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All Dawn Penn tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fugazi 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Subhumans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Names,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Gong,
The Music Machine,
The Residents,
Symarip,
The Doors,
Essential Logic,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Groovy Waters,
Sugar Minott,
Eric Dolphy,
Technova,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Dennis Brown,
Marshall Jefferson,
Ituana,
Suicide,
Sparks,
Joe Finger,
Alton Ellis,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ronan,
Ponytail,
Lungfish,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Angry Samoans,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Index,
Pagans,
Porter Ricks,
The Dead C,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Man Parrish,
Scrapy,
ABBA,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Soul Sonic Force,
Duran Duran,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
X-102,
Radiohead,
Cheater Slicks,
Eddi Front,
Underground Resistance,
Althea and Donna,
48th St. Collective,
The Monochrome Set,
R.M.O.,
Ronnie Foster,
Tears for Fears,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Last Poets,
The Red Krayola,
Altered Images,
Piero Umiliani,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.