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 Korea North 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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Marine Girls to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. All the underground hits.
All The Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Prunes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Public Enemy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Pet Shop Boys,
Can,
The Residents,
Arcadia,
Organ,
Morten Harket,
Television Personalities,
Crispy Ambulance,
Rod Modell,
Sun City Girls,
Nick Fraelich,
Black Bananas,
Dennis Brown,
Tubeway Army,
Eyeless In Gaza,
These Immortal Souls,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Panda Bear,
MC5,
Toni Rubio,
Tommy Roe,
Scientists,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Roger Hodgson,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Brand Nubian,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Doobie Brothers,
Second Layer,
Dorothy Ashby,
10cc,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Spandau Ballet,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Music Machine,
The Monochrome Set,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Peter and Kerry,
Adolescents,
The Dead C,
Livin' Joy,
Sound Behaviour,
The Dirtbombs,
Outsiders,
Silicon Teens,
Talk Talk,
Heaven 17,
Gerry Rafferty,
Joey Negro,
CMW,
Charles Mingus,
China Crisis,
Bluetip,
The Associates,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends.
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.